How To Train Your Pirate
by ArabianPerfection
Summary: Svala was nine years old when there was a battle between her father's ship and the village of Berk. Svala was the only survivor. The Vikings took her back to Berk with them where she got to know Hiccup and they became best friends. This is her story of what it was like during the HTTYD movie. Follow her as she struggles to become more than an outcast and get Snotlout to notice her.
1. Prologue

How To Train Your Pirate

It was a cold day of the island of Berk, not that that was unusual. The entire village was gathered at the harbor eagerly awaiting the return of the warriors. Twelve year old Hiccup, as small and stringy as ever, was struggling to push his way to the front. When that failed to produce any results, he ducked down and crawled through the ocean of massive Vikings.

When he reached the front line everyone erupted into cheers and shouts. Hiccup looked out at the water to see two large Viking ships coming from over the horizon. He joined the cheers when he saw his father standing at the helm of one of the ships. They were obviously victorious.

When the ships neared, ropes were thrown from over the side of the boats and grabbed by women standing on the docks, who then pulled the ships in and tied them down.

As Vikings began climbing of the vessels Hiccup rushed forward and leapt into his father's arms. "Dad!"

"Hello, son!" Stoick hugged his son tightly before placing him on the ground. "I have a surprise for you."

A shrill shriek that sounded like the voice of rage itself rose up from the ship. Hiccup careened his head around his father's large form to get a look at the source of the noise, but was only able to catch a flash of red before other Vikings moved into his line of sight, trying to help retrain whatever it was.

Stoick moved to the side as a group of Vikings drug the thing from the boat and onto the dock to stand before the father and son. As Hiccup felt his father place his hand on his back the Vikings parted and Hiccup saw something he never expected. A young girl, around his age, was being retrained as she thrashed around desperately, spewing in a strange language what he assumed were curses. Her flaming red hair fell in loose curls around her face and her striking blue eyes were wild with rage.

"Surprise!" Gobber popped up on Hiccup's other side.

"…what?" Hiccup looked up at his father with a 'have you lost your marbles' look.

"This is the daughter of the pirate captain, though we can't get her to calm down enough to tell us her name. A fierce one she is. Been fighting us tooth and nail… and you're going to train her to be a Viking." Stoick explained like he was telling his son to train a puppy.

"…what?"

"It'll be good for you. Maybe toughen you up a bit." Stoick turned to the Vikings desperately trying to restrain her. "Take her to my house and put her in Hiccups room." Stoick commanded them and they immediately began dragging her up to the hut, kicking and screaming.

Hiccup watched as they drug the girl away, his face completely drained of all color. "She's going to kill me."

"Probably." Hiccup scowled and shifted his gaze over to the source of the oh so encouraging word. Gobber. Astrid, Snotlout, and the rest of the pre-teens walked past them, snickering at his misfortune.

A large hand clasped itself to the small boy's shoulder. "Come on son. The sooner you start working with her the less Vikings that'll end up in the hospital." Hiccup slumped his shoulders and followed his father up the docks and back to their house.

The voices of the other kids laughing and mocking him echoed in his head the entire way there. He even overheard some of the adults betting on how long he would last with the red headed viper.

**~ Hiccup's House ~**

Hiccup dove to the ground as a lamp came flying at his head with deadly accuracy, shattering against the wall behind him. The young pirate, who had been set loose in his room, grabbed anything she could get her hands on and chucked it at the small Viking, screaming in her strange language at him.

"Hey! Hey! I'm not going to hurt you!" Hiccup held up his hands in surrender, slightly cowering from the terrifying girl. Only slightly.

Once again she spoke in a language he couldn't understand with an angry tone, but nonetheless paused in her assault.

Hiccup tried to think of something else to say or do. The first thing he noticed was her strange clothes. "Do you want some different clothes?"

She stared blankly at him. Hiccup tugged at his shirt. "Clothes."

He saw realization dawn on her and she looked down at her clothes. They were old, worn, and torn up from the battle.

She looked back up at Hiccup and pulled at her own ripped up shirt. "C-Close."

Hiccup looked at her, startled, then smiled softly and very carefully walked over to his dresser so as not to set her off and started rummaging through it to find something for her to wear. Luckily, at 9 years old, her and Hiccup weren't very different in body shape, though she looked quite a bit thinner, more than she should have actually. But living on the sea practically 24/7 probably didn't offer the best nutrition.

After a few minutes, Hiccup pulled back from his dresser with a long sleeved green tunic and belt in one hand and a pair of pants and furry boots in the other. She gave him a long, hard stare before slowly edging over to him and grabbing the stuff. The red headed pre-teen looked at Hiccup expectantly, which took him a few moments to understand.

"Oh! Right! Uhh…I'll close my eyes and turn around." Hiccup demonstrated by making a show of squeezing his eyes shut, clamping his hand over them, and turning his back to her. Hiccup was unable to see the shocked expression on the pirate's face that he actually trusted her enough to leave himself vulnerable like that.

Her lightning blue eyes were instantly drawn to the small dagger resting at Hiccup's hip.

Hiccup heard footsteps approach him from behind, but stayed true to his word and kept his eyes closed. He felt the girl's hand on his shoulder which then spun him around to face her. He took this as an indication to open his eyes and thus did so.

The red haired girl stood before him, her hands hidden behind her back and a large, mischievous smile on her face. She was wearing the tunic with the leather belt strapped high up on her waist giving it a more feminine, dress look. She was also wearing the leggings, which were a bit loose but still fit, and the boots. Another item, one Hiccup had not given her, gleamed from its place tucked into her belt. Hiccup's hand automatically went to were his dagger was strapped to his side only to find it was indeed gone.

"How did you do that?!" He looked back up at the girl who now wore a large, prideful grin on her face and was twirling the small blade in her hand. While she couldn't understand the words he spoke, she knew fully well what he was saying.

Hiccup placed a hand on his hip and held out the other one. "Alright. Give it back."

Her blue eyes stared intensely into Hiccup's own brown ones, her face now dangerously somber and her hand tightly gripping the hilt of the dagger, and Hiccup realized exactly how serious the situation was. The pirate had two choices. She could hand over the dagger and thus ally herself with the Vikings or she could kill him now and avenge her tribe's death at the hands of the Vikings.

Hiccup let the hand on his hip fall limp at his side and bravely stood tall despite the impending fear of death, keeping the other outstretched. She made up her mind. She thrust the dagger forward... and dropped it into Hiccup's hand. He stared at the piece of metal laying in his palm in wonder, and then looked at her with equal shock.

The girl was terribly saddened over the death of her parents and her tribe, but she was a pirate and had been raised a pirate her whole life so it did not hit her as hard as it would have another child. The boy standing before her was unlike anyone else she head even met. He wasn't exactly tough, but he was kind and brave, so she decided to give him a chance and let him show her his world.

She smiled at him and placed her hand over her chest. "Svala."

Hiccup returned both the smile and the gesture, dropping the dagger onto the floor. "Hiccup."


	2. Chapter 1

How To Train Your Pirate

**Chapter 1**

"Hurry up with those weapons!" A hefty Viking pounded his fist on the counter of the weapon's forge with a holler.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" I screeched back, rushing over and dumping a load of weapons from my arms and onto the counter. Before I could even take a step all of the weapons had been snatched up and a new group of Vikings were standing in front of me, demanding weapons.

I groaned in frustration and hurried back to get more.

My heart was beating out of my chest and I was shaking like a leaf from all the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Why? Dragons. The beasts had assembled another raid and half the village was either destroyed or on fire. Everyone was doing what they could to save their home, whether it was put out the fires or kill the dragons. Well, almost everyone.

"Where's Hiccup!?" I screamed at Gobber, who seemed to be far less frazzled than I was.

As if on cue, Hiccup came running through the doorway of forge.

"Nice of you to join the party!" Gobber called to him cheerily. "I thought you had been carried off."

"I think we have different definitions of the word party." I growled at my mentor irritably as I worked on sharpening some swords before more people came looking for some.

"What? Who? Me?" Hiccup grabbed his leather apron; an exact replica of the one strapped to me, and tied it on as he got to work. "Nah. I'm way too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." Hiccup tried to show off his nonexistent muscles.

"Well, Dragon's need toothpicks don't they?"

"Well, aren't you the supportive one?" I bit at him sarcastically, dumping the newly sharped swords and other assorted weapons in place of the dull ones Hiccup had just picked up from the counter.

"Are you always this cranky under pressure?"

Ignoring Gobber, I noticed Hiccup staring out of the window and went to see what he was looking at. It was the other teenagers. Astrid in particular. At the sight of the blond girl, a shot of jealousy pulsed through my veins. She was beautiful, a skilled warrior, and every boy in Berk was head over heels in love with her, including my best friend, Hiccup, and my long time crush, Snotlout.

Yes, the dark haired Viking was aggressive and egotistical, but I cared about him for who he was though he could never return my feelings. Everyone on the island saw me as nothing more than a filthy pirate, an outcast. The only people who accepted me were Hiccup and Gobber. I've lived with Hiccup for four years now, we were the best of friends, and with Hiccup being… well… Hiccup, he was almost as much as an outcast as I was. Gobber liked everyone so that wasn't the biggest accomplishment. Sometimes it still feels like I'm a prisoner. Everywhere where I go, people look at me with mistrust and distain. I'm never allowed anywhere important by myself. What hope could I have of being with Snotlout, who was a Viking in every way.

"Eh!" Hiccup was suddenly plucked from beside me, snapping us both out of our trances.

"Oh, come on! Let me out! Please! I need to make my mark." Hiccup whined as Gobber carried him by the back of his shirt.

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places." Gobber set him back on his feet and poked him with his pincher thing.

"Please. Two minutes. I'll kill a dragon; my life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date."

I grabbed a nearby dull sword and got to work sharpening it. I wished I was as optimistic as Hiccup. "Is a date worth getting your butt burned off?"

"Svala's right Hiccup. You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe… you can't even throw one of these."

Gobber shook a bolas in front of Hiccup until it was grabbed out of his hand by another Viking and thrown at a gronckle.

"Okay fine, but _this _will throw it for me." Hiccup placed his hand on one his machines which then went off and hit a Viking in the forehead, promptly knocking his unconscious. It's a good thing Vikings are hardheaded.

Gobber advanced on Hiccup. "See!? Now this right here is what I'm talking about."

Hiccup stumbled over his words. "Mild calibration issue-" Gobber cut him off.

"Hiccup! If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons you need to stop all… this." Gobber gestured to Hiccup's… everything.

"But you just pointed to all of me."

I rolled my eyes and placed another sharpened sword on the counter, grabbing a new one. Someone had to keep the weapons coming while these two chit-chatted.

"Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you."

"Ooh."

"Ooh, yeah."

Oh brother.

"You-You, sir, are playing a dangerous game! Keeping this much raw... Viking-ness... contained! There will be consequences!"

Gobber was unimpressed. "I'll take my chances." He turned around and grabbed a sword, throwing it into Hiccup's arms and thus ending the conversation. "Sword. Sharpen. Now."

Hiccup was obviously upset, but got to work nonetheless. I looked at him over the axe I was sharpening and offered a smile. "Don't worry Hiccup. You'll get your chance." I could be comforting on occasion.

He turned his eyes up at me, smiling back weakly. "Thanks, Svala."

We both looked out at the village when someone shouted "Nightfury!" and one of the towers was blown up. Hiccup and I dropped the weapons in hand and rushed over to the counter, trying to get a look at the infamous dragon.

"Man the fort Hiccup! They need me out there." Gobber ordered him as he interchanged his pinchers for a weapon. Gobber hobbled over to the doorway then stopped and turned to the both of us. "Stay. Put. There… You know what I mean." Gobber ran into the burning village with a battle cry. Typical Viking.

I picked up the axe I dropped and turned around just in time to see Hiccup run out the door with his weird contraption.

"Hiccup!"

"I'll be right back!" Hiccup called back to me without pausing.

I groaned and ran after my best friend. Someone had to watch out for him. Now if only someone had watched out for me.

I ran in the direction Hiccup went, but he was already out of sight. I looked everywhere as I ran except for the most important place, right in front of me. I hit something much larger than myself full force and was knocked into my backside.

I groaned, holding my throbbing head, and sat up. When I opened my eyes I looked into fierce yellow ones. A vibrant green Monstrous Nightmare was standing over me, teeth bared. It growled. I screamed. I scrambled to me feet and shot off running, the axe left forgotten in the dirt. The Monstrous Nightmare roared and took off after me, crashing through houses as I tried to run around them.

For a second time, I wasn't looking where I was going to ran into something as a result. Only I couldn't have been happier to see this something. When I opened my eyes I saw misty green eyes framed by black hair. Snotlout. It didn't take me long to notice our position. Snotlout had been pushed flat on his back, with me straddling his waist, and the two of us very close together.

He growled. "What's your problem?"

I heard wood breaking and looked behind me to see the Monstrous Nightmare crashing through a house. But now… it was on fire. I quickly rolled off him and pointed to the dragon as it zeroed in on us.

"That's my problem!"

It roared and came at us causing Snotlout to scream. Wow. Real manly.

"Come on!" I grabbed his hand as I got up and started running, pulling him with me. He stumbled for a bit before finding his feet and running with me.

My eyes darted around the burning houses as I tried to think of how to escape the monster. How to get away from fire? Fire. Fire… Water!

"That's it! This way!" Determination flashed through my eyes and I took a sharp turn, pulling Snotlout behind me as I headed for the docks. The Monstrous Nightmare started to gain ground until it was snapping at our backs. It opened its jaws and lunged forward the finally few feet just as we jumped off the cliff.

The ocean swallowed us as we plunged into its depths. We looked at each other then up at the surface where we could still see the flaming dragon. I looked around until I saw the darker water under the docks and started swimming toward them, Snotlout following suit. We each gasped for air when we broke the surface underneath the wooden docks. That is, until we heard loud thumps above us.

The dragon.

We stared into each other's eyes, scarcely breathing. All was silent for a few tense seconds and then we heard the dragon take off and fly away. We sighed in relief.

"You know, I wasn't scared. I could've taken him."

I rolled my eyes, smiling. Typical Snotlout.

"Yeah, I could tell by your manly screams of fear."

He scoffed. "Those were battle cries." He looked at the water around us. "So, was going in the water a pirate thing?"

At this, the smile dropped from my face and I glared at him. "I was trying to save our asses from the _flaming _dragon by going in the _water_. It had nothing to do with being a pirate."

I slapped my hand into the water, effectively splashing him in the face. I turned away from him while he was coughing up water and swam out from under the docks and pulling myself up onto them. I twisted the water out of my red hair and walked away from Snotlout who was trying to pull himself up, but seeming to be having a slightly harder time than myself. As I got farther away from him, I allowed the scowl to drop from my face and my shoulders slumped. I could never let him know how much that simple question hurt. It only proved he still thought of me as a pirate, not a Viking like him.

I stomped off the docks and onto solid ground with Snotlout running to catch up just in time for some giant, wooden post to fall over and destroy them. Behind what was left of the post? Hiccup.

"Sorry, dad."

"This can't be good." I mumbled and stood off to the side with the villagers as whatever had been on top of the post rolled away and damaged many, many things.

"…Okay, but I hit a Night Fury." His dad grabbed Hiccup and started dragging him back home. I slunk off behind them, keeping out of the center of attention.

"This isn't like the last few times, Dad. I mean I really actually hit it. You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down just off of Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there before-"

"Stop! Just… stop. Every time you step outside disaster falls. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed."

"Well between you and me the village can do with a little less feeding don't you think?"

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Uhh, why can't you follow the simplest orders?"

"I-I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just kill it. You know? It's who I am dad."

His dad sighed. "You many things Hiccup, but a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house."

Stoick's eyes landed on me. "You too Svala."

I hunched my shoulders and joined Hiccup's side along with Gobber. Stoick turned to the black smith. "Make sure they get there. I have his mess to clean up."

I pressed my lips together and shifted my gaze. Just wait until he saw what that Monstrous Nightmare chasing me did.

We started back up to the house with Gobber behind us. I looked up and saw the other teenagers. Oh, great. Talking to them was always delightful. That was sarcastic by the way.

"Quite the performance." Tuffnut.

"I've never seen someone mess up that badly." Snotlout.

"Thank you. Thank you. I was trying, so…" Hiccup walked past them in shame, crestfallen.

I caught Snotlout's eye as I walked past, my face somber. He watched me until Gobber shoved him to the ground.

"Ow!"

I quickened my pace to walk next to Hiccup as we started up the hill.

"I really did hit one. He never listens. And when he does it's always with this disappointed scowl like someone skipped on meat on his sandwich. Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fish-bone!"

I nodded in understanding as Hiccup talked. I admit I was slightly doubtful that Hiccup actually hit a Night Fury, but he seemed completely sure of himself and his father never even gave him a chance. I had lived with Hiccup for four years, what he was saying was true. I felt a little bad for him. My father may have been dead I know he was always proud of me.

"Now you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like; it's what's inside that he can't stand."

We both gave Gobber weird looks. Worst comforting words ever.

"Thank you for summing that up."

"Look, the point is stop trying to be something you're not."

"I just want to be one of you guys." Hiccup told the older man sadly as he opened the door to the house and went inside.

A look of understanding came to my face as I followed Hiccup inside. I turned a bit toward Gobber, my eyes dull. "That's all we ever wanted."

I closed the door behind me, falling against it. I jumped when I noticed Hiccup right in front of me.

"Come on." He whispered excitedly and grabbed my hand, pulling me out the back door.

"Where are we going?" I whisper yelled at Hiccup as we ran into the forest.

"To find that Night Fury."

I slowed down a bit and stared at Hiccup slack-jawed. "You're insane!"

"Yep."

I groaned in exasperation and ran after him. Guess we're going dragon hunting. We ran to near Raven's Point then stopped so Hiccup could pull out his design book and draw a map of the area the beast could have fallen to. We looked in multiple places, but with no luck.

Finally Hiccup sighed and slapped his book closed, placing it back inside his vest. "Oh, the Gods hate me."

I looked at him. "I wish I could disagree, but it's starting to look that way."

He gave me an irritated look, but it was halfhearted. "Thanks for the encouragement… Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, no. Me? I manage to lose an entire dragon!"

Hiccup went off on another rant, slapping a branch out of his way which ended up slapping him back.

"Ow!"

I couldn't help it. I started laughing… until I looked up and saw a broken tree. I looked forward and saw a bunch of broken trees and a large skid mark.

"Whoa."

Hiccup took the lead as we started down the path. We looked over a slight rise and saw something large and black. The Night Fury. Hiccup gasped and we both ducked down, praying it did not see us. I was the first to look and realized the creature appeared to be dead. I nudged Hiccup who got up beside me and quickly pulled out his knife. Huh. A knife would've been nice to bring. Or a sword. Swords are nice too.

I quickly jumped over the rise and ran down behind Hiccup to a large bolder. We came around from different sides and approached the dragon. I had never been close to a dragon that wasn't trying to kill me and sure as hell had never been close to a Night Fury. It was stunning. Honestly I was a little sad something as wonderful and rare as this had been killed.

"Oh, wow. I did it! Oh, I did it! This fixes everything! Yes! I have brought down this mighty beast!"

Hiccup placed his foot on the dragon, but was pushed back when it moved. Okay, so it wasn't dead. Hiccup quickly thrust his knife out in front of him while I, having no weapon, backed away from it. Hiccup approached it but I kept my distance, skirting around the edge.

It was awake.

"I'm going to kill you dragon. I'm going to cut out your heart and take it too my father. I'm a Viking… I'M A VIKING!"

Hiccup took a few deep breaths as it stared at him through silted pupils and raised the little knife, no less deadly than a sword as this point, above his head. I watched my friend with bated breath. Could he actually do it? Could the kind hearted boy I'd known for all these years kill a dragon?

No.

Hiccup lowered the knife, looking at helpless dragon. The beast had closed his eyes and laid his head on the ground as if accepting his fate.

"I did this."

Hiccup backed away in horror. I approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yes, you did. Now you have to make it right."

He looked me in the eyes then ran over and started to cut away the ropes. I followed and tried to hold down the dragon as best I could, so it wouldn't get cut if it started thrashing around. When the last rope was cut away, it lunged up, effortlessly knocking me off of it and pinning Hiccup to the ground.

I pushed myself up onto my elbows just in time to see it roar fiercely at Hiccup and fly away. Hiccup fell back against the rock in relief, panting. I sighed in relief and stood up, brushing the dirt off me.

"Well that was fun."

Hiccup tried to walk back only to collapse and faint. I sighed and shook my head then picked him up with his arm around my shoulder and started dragging him back home until he got over the shock and walked the rest of the way.

When we opened the back door, Hiccup's father was already there poking at the fire. We looked at each other then tried to quietly sneak back up stairs.

"Hiccup."

Hiccup stopped, but I ran up the rest of the way. He didn't call my name.

"Uh, Dad! I have to talk to you dad." Hiccup started back down the stairs while I watched and listened from the top of the stairs.

"I have to speak with you too, son."

I paused for a second then pushed myself up and retreated to my room. This was a father-son conversation; I had no right to listen in. A few minutes later, Hiccup came dragging his feet up the stairs and opened the door to my room.

"He wants to talk to you."

Without another word, Hiccup left and went to his room. I stood up and slowly walked by down stairs, moving very cautiously. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be good.

Stoick turned around when I reached the bottom, his arms crossed.

"Svala, do you know why I wanted to talk to you?"

I stood my head, but didn't dare say anything.

"I'm entering you and Hiccup in dragon training."

My mouth dropped open and I stayed like that for a few seconds, trying to find my voice. "O-ohh. That's great." I tried weakly to act excited.

Stoick didn't seem to notice as he walked over and placed a large hand on my shoulder. "Svala, I brought you to Berk because you were very young during the battle and I thought you'd make a great Viking with your spirit and fight. Now it's time for you to prove me right by becoming a great dragon killer and a true Viking."

I bit my lip and looked up at him. "So you're saying is once I kill a dragon I'll be a Viking. One of you guys?"

Stoick smiled and nodded. "Precisely."

I forced a fake grin onto my face. "Great."

Stoick patted me on the back. "Good talk. Now off to bed. Your training starts tomorrow."

The chief placed a giant woven basket on his back and went to the front door. "I'll be back… probably."

With that, he was gone.

Frozen, I stared at the door for a few seconds then bolted up the stairs and to Hiccup's room.

"Hiccup! Hiccup! Hiccup!"

I threw open his door and ran over to where he was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. "DRAGON TRAINING!"

Hiccup sighed and sat up with his legs dangling over the side, looking up at my hysterical face. "Yep. What did he say to you about it?"

I sat down next to him on the bed and fell back with one arm over my face. "He said if I kill a dragon, I'll be a real Viking. Everyone will accept me."

Hiccup fell back beside with a groan. "He said pretty much the same thing to me."

"Well this is just great." I looked over at Hiccup. "So what are we going to do? Dragon training starts tomorrow. We can't just not show up."

Hiccup glanced at me then looked up at his ceiling. "I'll think of something but for now we'll just have to go."

I sighed and pulled myself back up to my feet as Hiccup stretched back on his bed. I turned to Hiccup and wished him goodnight as I closed the door, him doing to same. I pushed my hands into the pockets of my vest and dragged myself to my room, throwing myself into the bed. I kicked my shoes off and laid on my side, staring blankly at the wall.

What was I going to do? Killing a dragon meant finally being accepted by the village, even the other teenagers. It was all I had ever wanted after coming to Berk. But I didn't really want to kill dragons. I probably could if I had to, but seeing that Night Fury with Hiccup got me thinking. All my life people had told said that a dragon will _always _kill you if given the chance. Why didn't this one? Was it possible we were wrong about them?


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At some point I drifted off to sleep, because the next thing I knew it was morning. Nooo! I want it to be night again! I turned onto my stomach and pressed the pillow over my head. I heard the door to my room open and then someone was shaking me.

"Wake up, Svala. We have dragon training in two hours."

I groaned and pulled the pillow away, drowsily sitting up in my bed. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Couldn't dragon training be later? Like next week?"

"I wish. Now hurry up, breakfast is almost ready."

I climbed out of bed and went over my dresser, pulling out an outfit for today. I had on the typical tan pants tucked into the boots that looked like everyone else's. Over the pants was a thigh length leather battle skirt made out of strips of leather ending in points. My olive green shirt was short sleeved with a v-neckline. I put on shoulder armor and a breast plate then wrapped my arms and braided my curly red hair into two braids.

When I was satisfied with my appearance I hurried down stairs and sat down in front of the bowl of porridge already waiting for me on the table. I shoved down the food quickly, looking at Hiccup once I was done.

"Thanks, Hiccup! That was great!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and grabbed my empty bowl, throwing it in the sink. "You have the worst table manners."

I smirked at him and headed toward the front door, grabbing my sword as I went. "And they're still better than most of the people on this island."

"That… is true." Hiccup grabbed his axe off the floor and closed the door behind us. As we walked side by side toward the dragon killing arena, we started to walk slower, dreading when we reached there.

We snuck in behind the rest of group and followed them into the arena. They were talking about getting mauled and burned when Hiccup decided it was a good idea to speak up. What could possibly make his think that was okay, I have no idea.

"Yeah, no kidding right? Pain, _love_ it." Everyone turned to stare at us.

I glared at Hiccup out of the corner of my eye. My sword was resting on my shoulder plate, my other hand on my hip.

"Oh, great. Who let them in?" God I hated Tuffnut.

Thankfully Gobber came over before I made up my mind on the best way to kill Tuffnut. "Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."

Duly noted.

"I thought this was a Viking only class. Why is the pirate here?" Ruffnut and Tuffnut gave me nasty looks.

"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury so does that disqualify him or…"

Everyone laughed at what Snotlout said and walked away from us. Gobber put his arm around Hiccup and led us over to the others. "Don't worry. You're small and weak. That will make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead."

Just stop talking.

Gobber let him go and went to the front of the group. "Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. The Deadly Nadder. The Hideous Zippleback. The Monstrous Nightmare. The Terrible Terror. Can you stop that?!"

A larger boy, Fishlegs, talked about the dragon's states until Gobber yelled at him.

"And… the Gronckle."

"Whoa, whoa, wait. Aren't you going to teach us first?" I looked at Snotlout then at Gobber's hand on the cage door lever.

"Snotlout's got a point!" I called out nervously.

"I believe in learning on the job." With that Gobber pulled down the lever, thus releasing the dragon.

Everyone yelled and scattered as the dragon burst out of its cage.

"Today is about survival. You get blasted, you're dead… Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?"

"A doctor!?"

"Plus five speed?!" Really Fishlegs?

"A shield!" I hate her. Well, maybe hate was a strong word. I severely disliked her.

"Shield! Go!"

Everyone ran for the shields. I bolted over to a blue one leaning against the stone wall and picked it up. I held it in front of me defensively with my sword pointed out beside it.

"The most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield."

While Ruffnut and Tuffnut were fighting over one of the shields they got blasted by the Gronckle.

"Ruffnut. Tuffnut. You're out. Those shields are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim."

The five of us left banged our weapons on our shields, creating a clanging noise and making the dragon dizzy. We spread out to circle the dragon.

"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?"

"Five?"

"No, six!"

"Correct, six! That means only one of you will survive!"

As soon as Gobber said that, the Gronckle blew Fishlegs' shield into bits. Fishlegs screamed and ran away.

"Fishlegs. Out… Hiccup get in there!" Gobber looked around and spotted me.

"Svala you're not even trying!" Gobber yelled at me in exasperation.

I poked my head out from my hiding place behind the weapons rack. "Not true! I'm just playing a different game than the rest of you."

"Game?!" Gobber cried out.

"Yeah! You're all playing 'let's see who dies last' and I'm playing 'I wanna live to see my next birthday'!"

"Svala! Look out!" Hiccup cried out to me.

I swiveled my head around just in time to see the Gronckle open its mouth. I clawed at the stone ground, scrambling out from behind the piece of wood just in time for a ball of flame to shatter it to pieces.

"Svala, your dead!"

I groaned and dropped the shield, running out of the arena just as Snotlout got blasted. Snotlout ran past me to the others and we all watched Hiccup and Astrid. Astrid rolled away and the Gronckle knocked away Hiccup's shield. Hiccup turned and ran from the dragon chasing him.

"Hiccup!" I screamed. He was in real danger now.

"I knew he was going to get eaten." My hand closed into tight fight and I spun around, nailing in Snotlout right in the face.

"Shut up! This is serious!" I spun back around and saw Gobber grab the dragon's jaw with his hook, directing the shot of fire away from Hiccup.

Gobber threw the creature back in its cage and hobbled over to where we were all standing, panting and shaken up. "Remember, a dragon will always - _always_ - go for the kill."

I looked at Gobber and then started to go over to Hiccup only to have someone grab my shoulder and pull me back. When I turned around, Snotlout was there, his nose a bit swollen.

I narrowed my eyes and snarled at him. "What?"

He sighed and looked to make sure everyone else was out of hearing range. "Look, I was just kidding. I didn't mean to make you angry."

I crossed my arms over my chest, but eventually my expression softened as I looked at his worried expression. He looked genuinely sorry. "Okay, I forgive you I guess."

He grinned victoriously and put his fists on his hips. "Of course you do. How could you not forgive someone as great as me?"

I rolled my eyes, a smile tugging at my lips.

"So why did you get so angry at the docks yesterday?"

Startled, I looked at him, the smile completely gone from my face.

"Um-"

"Svala! Are you coming?!"

Snotlout and I swiveled are heads around to look at Hiccup waiting for me at the arena entrance.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I yelled back at him then looked at Snotlout. "I gotta go."

As I ran past him, I felt his hand brush against my arm but I kept running until I got to Hiccup. We left the arena and as we rounded the corner I saw Snotlout watching at me. I quickly looked away and hurried out of sight.

When we got to the house I tried to open the door, but Hiccup stopped me. "What?" I turned to him with a confused expression.

"I want to go find that dragon." Hiccup started into the forest, the same way we went last night.

I stared after him with an 'are-you-kidding-me' look on my face. "Of course you do."

I ran to catch up with him and we went back to where we found the dragon. When we got to the place Hiccup bent down and picked up the bolas he used to take down the Night Fury.

"Gobber said a dragon will always go for the kill… so why didn't he?"

I picked of a broken sliver of tree and broke it in my hands. "Maybe they're not as ruthless as we thought."

Hiccup dropped the broken weapon and we continued in the direction the dragon fly off. After climbing over logs and hills we dropped down between two giant boulders and climbed between them. On the other side was a beautiful, bowl-shaped cove.

"Well this was stupid."

Hiccup turned around to leave but I tugged on his sleeve and pointed over to the left. There were four black scales scattered on the ground. Hiccup reached down to pick one up and studied it just as something flew past us with a screech. Hiccup fell back and I placed a hand on one of the boulders, taking a step back. We looked over and saw the Night Fury clawing at the wall of the cove. It slipped down then pushed off and glided over the water to land on the other side.

I hopped down onto a lower ledge to get a closer look, Hiccup climbing down behind me. We ducked down out of sight and watched it fly up toward the rock wall but then fly back down. Hiccup gasped and pulled out his notebook, remembering he brought it. He quickly sketched a bird's view of the dragon.

"Why doesn't he just fly away?"

I shrugged and looked at the drawing over his shoulder. "Maybe it's hurt." I looked at the dragon and suddenly noticed something. I looked back at the drawing then at the dragon then at the drawing again. I nudged Hiccup and pointed to the drawing's tail then at the tail of the real dragon.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes in concentration as he looked between the dragon and his drawing. His eyes widened in realization when he saw the same thing I did and the erased the left tail fin of the drawing.

The dragon took off again and flapped up toward the cove wall but all of a sudden it fell back down to the ground and crashed. It got up and shook itself off. I saw it stick its head into the pond, I figured to grab a fish, but it came up empty handed.

That's when Hiccup dropped his pencil.

It clicked to the ground and the Night Fury raised its head, staring straight at us. All three of us stayed frozen like that until the Night Fury, establishing we weren't a threat, turned its back to us and walked off to a small cave carved into the cove walls.

Hiccup and I looked at each other and then retreated out of the cove and started heading back to the village for dinner.

"That was intense." We had been silent for most of the time so I broke the ice.

"I'll say… I think we should go back tomorrow." Hiccup said it like he expected me to disagree.

I thought about it for a second and then nodded. "Alright. After Dragon Training?"

"Okay, look. We have to-wait. Did you say alright?" Hiccup looked at me, dumbstruck.

I smirked at his expression. "Yeah. There's something about that dragon. I'm starting to think they're not as bad as we thought."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay, good. Then we're on the same page."

That's when the rain started. One second it was nice and dry then next it was pouring.

"Oh, come on!" I yelled in exasperation. We ran to The Great Hall, but by the time we came through the door we were soaked to the bone.

The others were already in there apparently talking about what they did wrong today. Hiccup grabbed our plates of food, handing mine to me. Hiccup walked around to where his cup was and grabbed it seeing a Snotlout had moved over so Hiccup couldn't sit down.

When I came around, Snotlout moved over and patted the same seat he had denied Hiccup. I grabbed my cup and walked over to the table Hiccup was at, never even looking at him. I sat down and smiled at Hiccup, who smiled back appreciatively.

"Now, where did Hiccup go wrong today?"

"Uh, he showed up?"

"He didn't get eaten?"

"He's never where he should be."

"Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe this stuff. The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of. No attacks tonight. Study up."

"Wait, you mean, _read?"_

"While we're still alive?"

"Why read words when you can just _kill_ the stuff the words tell you stuff about?"

I sighed, rolling my eyes at Snotlout. Why did I like him again? "So you know _how_ to kill the stuff the words are about."

"Oh, I've read it like _seven_ times! There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face! And, and there's this other one that buries itself for like a week-" Fishlegs went off about the book as ever one stared at him until Tuffnut finally cut him off.

"Yeah, that sounds great. And there was a chance I was gonna read that..." Tuffnut trailed off and his sister finished. "But, now..."

"You guys read. I'll go kill stuff." Snotlout stood up and left, smiling at me when our eyes met. Everyone followed him out of the hall. I watched Hiccup try to talk to Astrid but she walked away from him, slamming the door to The Great Hall closed. Bitch.

I joined Hiccup at the table with book and sat next to him as he started flipping through it. Hiccup read through the book only pausing when a flash of lightning and burst of thunder startled him… and me. Just a little bit. All of the dragons were ordered to be killed on site and said to be extremely dangerous. Hiccup turned to the Night Fury page and I leaned in closer to get a better look but…

"There's nothing there."

Hiccup pointed to the bottom. "Here's something… Speed: unknown. Size: unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you"

I have just grown a whole new respect for Hiccup.

Hiccup leaned back and pulled out his book, opening it to the page the dragon was on and threw it onto the table. I looked over at him then pulled the Dragon Manuel closer to me while he studied the drawing. I flipped through the pages, skimming through the different species of dragons. I stopped when I got to a particularly interesting one. The Skrill.

"Rides lightning bolts like an air torpedo in the sky. Cool."

"C'mon. Let's go back. We have a long day tomorrow." I looked up and saw that Hiccup was standing at the end of the table, his book tucked back into his vest.

"Okay." I closed the book and left with him, leaving it in The Great Hall.

The next day we were back in the Killing Arena at the same time, but this time Gobber set a Deadly Nadder loose on us. I once again was welding a sword and shield. The arena had been turned into a giant maze and at some point Hiccup and I gotten separated.

Gobber was outside the arena yelling at us. "Today is all about attack! Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."

The Deadly Nadder raised the spikes on its tail and flung them at someone. Judging by the screams, I'd say Fishlegs. It turned and spotted me, hopping over. I ducked into the blind spot between its eyes, hiding there. When it turned its head to the side I rolled away before it could see me, running off to another section of the maze.

"Good job, Svala! Look for its blind spot! Every dragon has one! Find it, hide in it, and strike!"

I glanced around the corner and saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut trying to hide together in the Nadder's blind spot. This should be good. I didn't get a chance to watch what happened next, because someone grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me back against the wall.

I stared into misty green eyes.

"Snotlout? What do you want?" I spoke in a whisper so that the Nadder wouldn't hear me, but with how loud Ruffnut and Tuffnut are that probably wasn't a problem.

"I want to talk to you." Snotlout pressed close to me, his hands on either side of my head. He wasn't giving me a choice.

"Okay. Talk." If didn't have a sword and shield in my hands I would've crossed my arms over my chest.

"Why have you been so mad at me? I already apologized."

"But not to Hiccup."

Snotlout looked taken aback. "What?"

"You're a total jerk to my best friend - my only friend - and you think I'm not going to be angry?"

Snotlout opened his mouth to say something when the Nadder came around the corner. I pushed passed him and ran in the opposite direction, Snotlout at my heels. We met up with Astrid and Hiccup and ran through the maze together until Hiccup fell back to talk to Gobber. I slowed down a bit, but Hiccup looked fine so I continued on with the others.

We headed around a bend, but saw the Deadly Nadder and ducked down on the other side. Snotlout pushed down me into the corner and crouched down so he was half toward me, his shield front of us but his mace behind me. And he was _really_ close. Despite the impeding danger of a loose dragon closing in on us I was very happy at the moment.

Hiccup caught up to us and we all gestured for him to get down. Being as I was in a corner, I couldn't see what was going on, but I knew the dragon was nearby. Snotlout suddenly pulled me out of the corner. I saw Astrid across from me and she gestured with her hands to roll, nodding her head to where the dragon was. I took a deep breath, tucked, and rolled across the aisle to where Astrid was. Snotlout followed close behind. Of course, when Hiccup tried to roll he got stuck or something right in the dragon's line of vision.

Hiccup yelled and dodged out of the way just as it lunged and snapped at him. I ran between Astrid and Snotlout. We all stopped when we saw the dragon and turned to it, preparing to defend ourselves. Snotlout being Snotlout pushed Astrid and me out of the way.

"Watch out, babes, I'll take care of this one."

We both yelled at him as he threw his mace at the dragon… and missed completely. The dragon looked at the mace then back as Snotlout and made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Astrid and I looked at each other then at Snotlout with 'seriously' expressions. I didn't particularly like Astrid, but we were definitely thinking the same thing.

"The _sun_ was in my eyes!"

Astrid and I looked at each other as we rolled our eyes then ran off. Snotlout dodged a shot off fire from the Deadly Nadder and chased after us, the Nadder close behind.

"What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that, but I don't have time right now!"

I saw another aisle and took it as Astrid continued running forward. Snotlout took the same turn and I pulled him over beside me, the dragon running past us after Astrid. Now the dragon was knocking down the maze. We ran through the maze and met up with Fishlegs and the twins. How did I end up running with this group? They don't even like me. I figured it'd be me and Hiccup, but I got caught up with the others.

I saw Astrid jumping from wall to wall with the dragon behind her until the one she was on fell over. She screamed "Hiccup!" and I saw her land on top of him.

The twins taunted them from where we were hiding behind a fallen wall. "Ooh! Love on the battlefield!" "She could do better."

I slapped my hand over my mouth as I broke down laughing. This was too good.

Astrid jumped up as the dragon came at them and swung her axe, which was stuck in Hiccup's shield, at it, smashing the shield against its head. The dragon squawked in pain and walked away.

"Well done, Astrid."

Astrid spun around to Hiccup, who was curled up on the ground. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?! Our parents' war is about be become _ours_. Figure out which side you're on. Svala has." She pointed her axe at him and then walked away, the rest of the teens following after her. Whoa. When did I make that decision?

I watched them leave. Even if we had all worked well together during training, that didn't mean they had accepted me. At least… not all of them.

Snotlout paused at the entrance to stare at me like he expected me to go with them, but I turned away from him and went over to Hiccup, helping him to his feet.

As previously agreed, we went back to the cove where the Night Fury was.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We had crawled down into the cove and were hidden in a small cavern between to large rocks. Hiccup brought a shield in case the dragon decided to try and roast us like turkeys. I had my sword strapped to my side. I had no intention of using it on the Night Fury, but it made me feel a bit safer.

I hid behind Hiccup and the shield until I ended up with a dead fish shoved in my face. I reeled back in disgust with my arm over my nose.

"That thing stinks!" I whisper-yelled at him.

"You think I don't know that?" Hiccup whispered back at me and tossed the fish out into the open.

Hiccup tried to move out of the cavern and got the stupid shield stuck in between the rocks. Perfect. Hiccup and I crawled under the shield and quickly crept into the open. Hiccup picked up the fish by the gills and we looked around for the Night Fury, but it was nowhere to be seen.

I was looking across the pond when I heard Hiccup gasp behind me and spun around to see the Night Fury crawling down from a rock perch. Spoke too soon.

It skirted around us, wary and growling. Hiccup held out the fish to it and it crept closer, but then saw his knife tucked into his belt and growled, its eyes narrowed it suspicion. Hiccup pushed his fur vest back and slowly went to grab the knife, but paused when the dragon tensed up and growled. Hiccup carefully pulled out his knife and dropped it then tossed it into the pond with his foot.

The dragon watched it then turned its angry gaze to me or more specifically, my sword. I unlatched the belt and sword from around my waist, moving slowly and carefully. Wrapping the belt around the sword, I tossed it over to the water's edge. I looked at the sword then glared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my hip to the side. "I am _not_ throwing my sword in the water."

The dragon looked me up and down but then sat down, seemingly satisfied. Its slit pupils widened into far less scary looking oval-shaped pupils.

Hiccup once again held out the fish in both hands, though this time it was in both hands. The Night Fury crept closer, still wary of us. It opened its mouth and both of us stared at it questioningly.

"Huh. Toothless? I couldn't sworn you had-"

Out of nowhere, sharp teeth erupted in its mouth and it snatched the fish out of Hiccup's hands, swallowing it whole.

"…Teeth."

The dragon turned its attention to Hiccup, pupils narrowing. It walked closer to us and we backed away. I figured it wanted Hiccup and tried back off to the side, but it herded me back to Hiccup's side.

"No, no, no." We stumbled back and pressed our back against a rock as the dragon came dangerously close to us.

"I don't have any more fish." The dragon stared deep into Hiccup's eyes… and then regurgitated half the fish. Gross.

It stood up on its hind legs and sat down, watching Hiccup expectantly. I giggled and nudged Hiccup's side with my elbow. "You better eat it, Hiccup. It'd be very rude not to."

Hiccup glared at me. "Yes, thank you Svala."

Hiccup took a bite of the raw fish and tried to act like it tasted good. The dragon wasn't satisfied and gestured for him to swallow it. Hiccup's shoulder drooped and he gave the dragon a 'really-I-have-to-swallow-it' look. I nudged Hiccup again, grinning and nodding when he looked at me. I got another glare, but he ate it nonetheless.

And then the dragon looked at me. It nodded it head to the fish. I looked at the fish then back at him. "He already ate it! Why do I have to too?"

I looked over when Hiccup nudged me in the side like I had done. "C'mon, Svala. It'd be very rude not to."

I glared at him and growled, but grabbed the fish off his lap and took a bite out of it, swallowing the chunk of flesh whole. I put my hand over my mouth when I threw up a little. I looked up at the dragon and smiled at him, Hiccup doing the same.

The dragon looked between us its lips twitching up and eventually smiled back at us. It was a little awkward, but really cute. Hiccup crawled forward and reached his hand up toward the dragon's snout, but it bared its teeth and flew off, landing on the opposite side of the pond.

It blew a ring of fire and then laid down in it, curled up. While it doing that Hiccup and I snuck over to it, sitting down a few feet from the dragon. When it noticed us we got an irritated look and he shifted to swing his tail around and hide his face behind the fin.

Hiccup scooted closer and reached out to try and touch him, but the dragon sensed him and moved his tail just as Hiccup stood up and walked away like he wasn't doing anything. The dragon grumbled and walked away to find somewhere else to sleep.

I walked over to where Hiccup was sitting on a small rock and sat down in front of him.

"Hey are you alright?"

Hiccup sighed and started drawing in the sand with a stick. "I don't know how to gain his trust. I've tried everything I can think of."

I didn't really know how to reply so I kept quiet while he drew a picture of the dragon. I saw something just in my range of vision and looked up to see the dragon walking up behind Hiccup. A smile tugged at my lips, but I didn't say anything to Hiccup. When the dragon was right behind him, it rose up on its hind legs and made a grumbling noise, alerting Hiccup to his presence. Hiccup eyes widened, but he didn't dare turn around in fear he'd scare the dragon off again and continued to draw.

It watched him draw for a while then stood up on his hind legs and walked off. When he came back he had a small tree in his mouth and started dragging it in the dirt. When he was done, we were surrounded by a long squiggly line. Was that supposed to be Hiccup? Adorable.

Hiccup got up and moved through the maze… drawing… thing… whatever it was, while I stayed planted in the circle drawn around me. He was careful not step on the lines, because it apparently pissed off the dragon when he did. Hiccup spun through the drawing until he ended up directly in front of the dragon. He turned around and something magical happened between the two when they looked at each other. Hiccup turned his head away and held out his hand toward the dragon. The dragon watched him for a moment then pressed his snout into Hiccup's palm.

Oh my gods. Why have cameras not yet been invented?

The pair opened their eyes and looked at each, but then the dragon snorted and flew away. I quickly jumped up and ran over to Hiccup, making sure not to step on the drawing. I turned him around and placed my hands on his shoulders, shaking him excitedly. "I think you just made a breakthrough!"

"…yeah." Hiccup stared past me dazedly, like he couldn't believe what have just happened. I laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him back to Berk. I made sure to grab my sword and strap it on before we left.

Tonight we were having dinner around a fire and somehow I ended up sitting between Snotlout and Tuffnut. Snotlout I was fine with, but me and Tuffnut didn't exactly get along. Gobber was telling us all the story of how he lost his limbs.

"And with one twist, took my hand and swallowed it whole! And I saw the look in his face - I was delicious! He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg!"

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon, like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing its heart or something?

"I swear I'm so ANGRY right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight! With my FACE!"

I was liking this conversation less and less with every word that came out of their mouths.

"Uh-uh-uh, no. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon... is a dead dragon." Gobber tore the wing off of his cooked chicken as if make his point.

I looked down at my own chicken and suddenly lost my appetite. Hiccup apparently did too because he hadn't touched his fish. Hiccup looked up and met my eye, jerking his head toward the walkway. I nodded and placed down my uneaten chicken, backing out of the group unnoticed and running down the boardwalk after him.

When we had gotten out of sight of the others, we slowed down to a jog. "Where are we going?"

"You heard Gobber. A down dragon is a dead dragon. We need to build Toothless a new tail fin."

"Build him a new tail fin?!... Wait Toothless?" I stared at him curiously as we entered his workshop in the blacksmith forge.

"Yeah, it's his new name." Hiccup opened his notebook on the table and redrew the other tail fin.

I grinned and clasped my hands together happily. "I love it! Toothless."

Using all the knowledge Gobber taught us about blacksmithing and Hiccup's smarts, we spent a good part of the night build Toothless a new tail fin to replace the one he lost. We slept at the forge on some makeshift cots for what was left of the night then went back to the cove first thing in the morning.

We went back, but this time instead of one fish we brought many fish. And with Hiccup as small and weak as he was, guess who had to carry all the fish? That's right. Me! I'm going to smell like fish for a week!

When we got there, I placed the basket of fish down in front of Toothless.

"I hope you're hungry." Hiccup kicked over the basket, spilling out the variety of fish.

I crinkled my nose at the smell. "That's gross."

"We got some salmon, some nice Atlantic cod, and a whole smoked eel." Hiccup read off the types of fish we brought as he skirted around Toothless with the tail fin in hand.

Toothless nosed through the fish until he started growling at something. I reached over and picked up the smoked eel. Toothless reared back and made a weird noise I couldn't describe. "Easy, easy, easy!"

I tossed the eel into pond and luckily he calmed down. "It's alright. The eel is gone."

I looked at Hiccup and backed up as he went around to the back of Toothless, will Toothless wolfed down the fish.

"That's it. That's it. Easy. Don't you mind me, I'm just back here minding my own business." Hiccup spoke soothingly as he approached Toothless' tail, probably more for his sake than the dragon's.

I sat down off to the side and watch as Hiccup tried to get the tail fin on, but the tail kept moving so he finally had to sit down on his tail to strap it on. I smiled when he finally got it strapped on, that is, until I saw the dragon's wings open up.

My eyes widened and I tried to warn him. "Hicc-"

The dragon took off.

"-up"

Hiccup yelled as the dragon fly off. Toothless swooped down and it looked like they going to crash, but he pulled up and the last second and flew high into the sky.

I jumped to my feet and ran toward them, stopping when they were out of sight. "…His dad's going to kill me."

Luckily they came flying back a few minutes later, gliding over the water. I sighed in relief, but then Toothless looked back at Hiccup and suddenly took a sharp turn, sending Hiccup flying off into the water. Without Hiccup to hold it open, the tail fin closed up and Toothless crashed into the water. I looked up at the sun then ran over to the water's edge.

"Hiccup! Dragon training starts in an hour!"

Hiccup squirted out water. "Coming!"

We said goodbye to Toothless and hauled ass to the Killing Ring. Unluckily for us, today was about the Hideous Zippleback. We were paired up in teams of two, but since there were an uneven number of people, the three girls were paired up together.

Once again, Gobber was watching lecturing us while we tried to stay alive. "Today is about teamwork."

The Hideous Zippleback was released and smoke filled the arena so dense that we couldn't see three feet in front of us. The assigned teams, stood back to back.

"Now a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is _extra_ tricky. One head breaths gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

Suddenly the three of us were doused with water. Astrid, Ruffnut, and I all yelled out when we say Snotlout and Tuffnut.

"Your butts are getting bigger. We thought you were a dragon." Tuffnut laughed.

Snotlout saw our angry expressions and tried to cover their asses. "Not that there's anything wrong with a dragoness figure." It did not work.

Astrid punched Snotlout square in the face while Ruffnut and I threw our buckets of water at her brother's face. We both looked at each with narrowed eyes, then grinned and high-fived.

Tuffnut suddenly yelled out as he was drug into the fog. Ruffnut moved forward to after her brother, but Astrid stopped her. The three of us stood tense and ready, me and Ruffnut behind Astrid since she was the only one left with water. The three of us screamed when the dragon's tail swept under us and knocked us off our feet. Soon after, Tuffnut came scrambling out of the fog screaming. He mowed over his sister and ran out of the arena.

"Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"

The three of us got back to our feet, though Ruffnut a bit slower considering her brother had just run her over. Just as we did the smoke cleared away and revealed Hiccup getting attacked by yet another dragon. I started over to help him, but then the dragon began backing away from him. The six of watched in amazement as he drove the dragon back into its cage. Or at least the others did, when I realized Hiccup had brought a smoked eel with him.

When Hiccup turned around everyone was stared at him awestruck. I grinned knowingly and gave him thumbs up.

He looked at me then at the others with wide eyes. "…Okay, so are we done? Cause we've got some things we need to do… yep. Come on, Svala."

I ran over to his side and we took off out the arena. "See you guys tomorrow!"

Once we were far enough away from the Arena I burst out laughing and high-fived Hiccup. "That was genius! Did you see the looks on their faces?!"

Hiccup laughed with me and smiled. "Yeah, that was pretty good… You seem to be getting along with the others a lot better."

We slowed down to a walk as we entered the forge and my smile softened. "I'm getting along with Astrid pretty well, she's not as bad as I thought; Fishlegs never seemed to have as much of a problem with me than the others in the first place; and I think I'm starting to get somewhere with Ruffnut though I'm pretty sure Tuffnut still kind of hates me."

Hiccup nodded in agreement and started sketching out new plans for a saddle. "What about Snotlout? That's who you really want to accept you, isn't it."

I pulled out some supplies, almost dropping them when he said that. I had almost forgotten I had told him about my crush on Snotlout. "He seems to being really accepting me and maybe even like me, but then he says something about me being a pirate or doesn't something mean to you and I pull away."

Hiccup continued to draw as he listened to me. "Remember, Svala. This is Snotlout we're talking about. Don't take everything he says too seriously."

I thought about for a moment as I set out all the supplies. I smiled at Hiccup and nodded. "Yeah, your right. I shouldn't be so harsh on him, but what about him being so mean to you."

Hiccup smiled encouragingly as me. "That's just who he is, you're going to have to accept that. I have."

I suddenly wrapped Hiccup up in big hug. "Thanks, Hiccup. You're a good friend."

He hugged me back and then we got down to business, designing and creating the saddle. We went back in the morning since Gobber had decided to give us the weekend off and Toothless looked more than excited, although I wasn't quite sure because he made us spend a good part of the morning trying to catch him. As I watch Hiccup working tirelessly to figure out how to ride Toothless, I realized something.

I wanted my own adventure.

I wanted my own dragon.

Wait a minute. Why couldn't I have a dragon of my own? Berk was crawling with dragons. It would be easy enough to find one and everything Hiccup knew about dragons I knew.

With that thought, I made the second life-changing decision of my life.

I silently rose from my seat and went to tell Hiccup of my expedition, but when I saw them twirling through the skies I changed my mind and decided against it, not wanting to set back his progress with Toothless in case he wanted to come with me. So I set out alone, deeper into the forest of Berk with no supplies to speak of and a small dagger as my only protection.

Not one of my smartest ideas.

But it was one of my best…


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I journeyed deep into the forest, much farther than many of the other villagers dared because of all the wild dragons. As I slid down a hillside I got a sense of foreboding, telling me to turn around and go back to the safety of the village. I ignored it. I was determined not to go back without a dragon, or at least not without making friends with a dragon.

That's when the storm came.

One minute it was clear and relatively warm, the next dark clouds rolled in. Lightning flashed from within them, but oddly enough I could hear no thunder. When I looked back toward the village, I saw that it was clear and sunny over there. The clouds were restricted to this area. And I was in the middle of it.

I pulled out my dagger and semi-crouched, creeping forward. My eyes darted around, looking for any danger. Something tugged at the back of my mind, like I knew something, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't put my finger on it.

I heard a stick break behind me and froze dead in my tracks. I stayed like that for a few seconds, scared of what I would see behind me. I took a deep breath and slowly turned around. My blood froze in my veins.

Before me was the most terrifying dragon I had ever seen and I remembered that thing that had been bothering me.

"It rides lightning bolts like an air torpedo in the sky… the Skrill."

The dragon had beautiful dark purple scales with a lighter underbelly and under wings. It was covered in dark spikes. It had hind legs but no front ones, on each wing was a large spike which the book said it used to walk. Its head was wide but not very tall and it had wide, fierce yellow eyes and a spike on its snout. Lightning pulsed through its body, jumping around.

It stood like a Monstrous Nightmare, its head only feet from me as it stared into my electric blue eyes. The dragon shifted its gaze to the dagger in my hand and hissed. I saw white fire gathering in its mouth.

"Easy, boy. It's okay I'm not going to hurt you."

Quickly threw the dagger into the forest, pacifying the dragon. It watched the dagger fly into the bushes then turned its attention back to me and growled softly. The dragon crept closer, looking into my eyes almost curiously, and I had the strong urge to back away, but I forced myself to stay put. If I was going to train a dragon, I was going to have to be brave and not run from it.

I reached out to place my hand on its snout, but yanked it back when the dragon snapped at me. It bared its teeth and hissed. Without warning the Skrill lunged, pinning me beneath it. It roared at me, but didn't attack.

I held up my hands in surrender. "It's alright. I just want to be friends."

The dragon made an odd high-pitched noise, almost like purring and backed off a few steps so I could sit up. I could see the dragon looking at its reflection in my breast plate and it moved closer, nudging the metal with its snout. The end result was me getting shocked.

"Ow!" I looked at my hair out of the corner of my eyes and groaned when I saw that it was sticking up in all directions.

The Skrill made a happy grumbling noise and then started what I assumed was laughing. I threw it an irritated look and at gently pushed him back. The electricity went back when I touched him and gave him a small shock. He stopped laughing and pulled back looking at me curiously before making a high-pitched purring sound.

I smiled and giggled at all the noises this dragon made then reached down to scratch under his chin. When I did his entire body relaxed and then he collapsed with his head in my lap. I stared down at him dumbstruck.

"Wow. You really like being stretched there."

I petted him over the flat part of his head, which he allowed in his relaxed stage. We stayed like that for a while with his head in my lap while I scratched and petted him. I felt the need to talk and told him of my life as a pirate and my life on Berk. I told him about Hiccup and Snotlout. At some point he fell asleep and I followed sometime after.

When I woke up, I had my arms around the Skrill's neck and his wing was covering my body. I sat up and yawned, looking around at the unfamiliar forest. The Skrill yawned and stood up, shaking himself off.

I gasped. "Oh, no! How long have I been out here?! Hiccup's probably freaking out!"

I got up and started to leave, but something grabbed my shirt and pulled me back. I turned around and saw the Skrill staring at me, standing at eye level.

"Oh, man. I almost forgot about you." I laid my hand on his head as he pressed it into my stomach.

I looked at his back and bit me lip. Petting him was one thing, but did I dare try and ride him? I looked up at the dark, night sky. I was a good few hours away from Berk and the likelihood of me being able to find my way back from here was slim. I took a deep breath and moved around to stand beside the Skrill, my hand staying on him.

Remind me to think of a name for him.

"Okay. I need you to get me back home. Do you think you could do that for me buddy?"

I carefully climbed onto him, sitting on his neck since that was the only place not covered in deadly spikes. The second I was on him, the Skrill took off to the sky. I held on to him and screamed at the top of my lungs.

"To fast! To fast! To fast!... To high! To high! To high!"

The Skrill shot up into the air, flying high into the night sky at a steep angle. He suddenly closed his wings so they were wrapped around us. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel us falling toward the ground. Just when I started to pray that I would have a quick death his wings burst open and we straightened out. When I looked down I saw we were gliding above the tree tops at an easy pace. I breathed out a sigh of relief and collapsed over his neck.

"Never do that again."

We finally got close to Berk, at least three times fast than if I had tried to walk, and when the area started to look familiar I looked around until I spotted the cove.

I pointed over to the area. "Down there."

I wasn't sure if the Skrill understood me or was just following my finger, but we swooped down into the bowl. The Skrill opened his wings to slow himself down and flapped slowly until his hind legs reached the ground and his front half lowered so he was walking on his wing spikes. I climbed of and hugged him around his neck.

"Thanks. I really owe you one."

I looked around at the dark area and walked away a bit before cupping my hands around my mouth and yelling. "Hiccup?! Are you out here?!"

"Svala!" Hiccup came running out of the shadows, Toothless right behind him.

We he got to me, we threw our arms around each other in a hug. When we released each other he went into hysterics.

"Where were you?! You've been gone for _hours_?!"

"I found my own dragon."

"That is no excuse-wait, what?" Hiccup finally saw the Skrill standing behind me and yelled, stumbling back into Toothless.

"Whoa! What is that?"

I grinned as the Skrill walked up to my side and placed my arm over his head. "He's a Skrill. I read out them in the Book of Dragons. He's in the Strike class like Night Furies."

Toothless and the Skrill locked gazes and started growling at each other, but Hiccup and I quieted them down.

"I found him deep in the forest… well, actually he found me."

Hiccup looked between me and the Skrill for a bit then approached us. Hiccup held his hand out and the Skrill allowed him place his hand on his head as opposed to when he tried to bit my hand off when I tried that.

Toothless came up beside Hiccup and nudged him over, the two dragons sniffing each other. They both growled for a bit then stopped and backed up a respectful distance from each other. Hiccup and I smiled at our dragons.

"What are you going to name him?" I looked over at Hiccup then back down at the Skrill and thought about when we met earlier today.

"Hm… what about Volt?"

The Skrill nuzzled into me. Hiccup and I laughed. "I think he likes it."

I looked up at the night sky. "How late is it?"

Hiccup shrugged. "It's probably almost midnight. We should get back to the village."

I nodded in agreement and we said goodbye to our dragons, leaving them in the safety of the cove where they hopefully wouldn't kill each other. The next morning Hiccup and I had breakfast then hurried back to the cove to work with the dragons. On the way there, Hiccup told me of this grass-stuff he called Dragon Nip. When we got there, Toothless and Volt were eating fish I assumed Volt had caught for them considering they were slightly burned.

While Hiccup tried various was to control the tail fin, I played with Volt. I gave his some of that Dragon Nip. He _loved_ it. I was hilarious watching him roll around on the ground. After watching Hiccup fly around for a few hours I decided it might be good to work with Volt on flying so I climbed back onto his neck, but luckily this time he didn't take off at insane speeds.

We flew around for a while, working on control and precision. At one point I leaned over to far and slipped right off his back. I screamed as I plummeted toward the ground. Volt swooped down under me and I landed back on his neck. When he landed back in the cove I collapsed over his neck. Hiccup half land half crashed beside me and laughed.

"I think we need to make you a saddle."

"I think your right."

We finished for the day and headed back to Berk and spent the rest of the day making a saddle for Volt. We finished right after dark and hid the saddle in the forge, returning to the house to sleep. The next day Dragon Training would begin anew.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day all the teenagers returned to the Killing Arena where the Gronckle was set lose on us once again. Hiccup brought the Dragon Nip with him and used it to subdue the dragon. Using the Dragon Nip, Hiccup got the dragon back in its cage. I ran over and high-fived him, smirking when I saw the expressions on everyone else's faces.

"Good job, Hiccup!" Gobber praised him then turned to the rest of the class. "Alright. That's it for today!"

Hiccup and I started walking back to the forge to get my saddle, but the rest of the class ran up to walk with us, gushing over how well Hiccup did today. Hiccup and I huddled together as they crowded around us.

"Uh, I left my axe back in the ring. You guys go on ahead I'll catch up with you." Hiccup squeezed out of the group and headed back toward the ring. "You coming, Svala?"

"Yeah." I pushed pass Snotlout and Tuffnut and ran after Hiccup, the group watching us go in confusion.

We went around the long way to the forge so the others wouldn't see us and grabbed my saddle then went to see our dragons. I showed Hiccup how Strike reacted to being scratched under the chin and he tried it on Toothless, who reacted the same way. Unfortunately, we had to wait a few hours for the dragon to get de-relaxed before we could ride them.

At sunset we unsaddled Toothless and Strike and went back home, pleased with the progress we were making. We talked for a bit about the dragons and then went to bed.

The next day we went the Killing Arena early in the morning and Gobber told us we would be facing the Deadly Nadder again. A small crowd had begun to watch the next generation of dragon killers being trained. If only they knew two of them were _riding_ dragons.

Astrid threw her axe at the Nadder as it burst from its cage, but it easily knocked it away and came as her. She dodged out of the way and ran back for her weapon as turned its attention to Hiccup. It ran up and stopped in front of him, confused when he didn't run away or fight back. It turned its head to look at Astrid as she ran at them screaming with her axe held up above her head. I froze, thinking she was actually going to kill it, but Hiccup quickly went around the Nadder and scratched under its chin.

It dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Astrid stopped in front of the downed dragon and stared at Hiccup, speechless. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged as Gobber came over and dragged the not so Deadly Nadder back to its cage. I back away to the entrance of the arena as Hiccup snuck over while the others were distracted by the dragon's state and we ran off when they weren't looking.

Hiccup and I decided to give our dragons a rest and talked in the forge about the day's events until it was time for dinner. We walked up to The Great Hall and got our dinner, sitting in the empty table next to the other students' like we usually did. Suddenly, everyone crowded around us, talking about today at training. It was a bit irritating being crowded b everyone, but Hiccup disserved to have the _good_ spotlight on him for once.

I smiled and ate my dinner when Snotlout abruptly sat down beside. "So, what's your guys' secret?"

"Hmm?"

"You guys' secret. How did Hiccup suddenly get so good?"

I smirked knowingly and swallowed the food in my mouth. "If I told you it wouldn't be a secret now would it?" I picked up my cup and took a drink.

Snotlout whined and leaned closer to me. "C'mon? Please." He put his arm around my shoulders. "If you tell me I'll go out with you."

At this, my eyes widened and I spit out the water in my mouth, spewing it all over someone. I coughed out the water in my lungs and turned to Snotlout, who was looking very proud of himself at my reaction.

"What?"

He leaned in so close to me that I could smell the meat on his breath. "Tell me your secret and I'll go out with you."

I tried to think straight but with him that close to me it was becoming really hard. "Wow. Do you really think that highly of yourself?"

Snotlout smirked. He could very well see what he was doing to me. "Well, I'd probably go out with you anyway."

Snotlout leaned in closer and closer until…

"Svala! I think we left the fire on at the house!" Hiccup suddenly rushed by, grabbing me by the wrist as he ran by. He dragged me out the door and slammed it closed. We fell back against the door and sighed in relief.

"Thanks, Hiccup. He was trying to get me to spill our secrets."

Hiccup nodded and we started back down to the house. "Yeah, I saw _everything_."

I blushed and smiled at him sheepishly. I couldn't say I hadn't enjoyed that. A small part of me wished Hiccup hadn't pulled me away, but I knew it was for the best. There was no way Snotlout of all people could know that we had dragons, and if he had done what I thought he was going to do I would've spilled my guts to him. I hoped that someday I could tell him and he could maybe even have a dragon of his own, but now was not the time.

We got back to the house and immediately went off to bed. The next morning we woke up right after dawn, ate breakfast, and headed out to the cove.

Hiccup somehow got the idea to use his pencil and a shiny coin to make a light shine on the ground for the dragons. Surprisingly enough, they loved it and crawled over each trying to get it.

I fell to the ground laughing when I was suddenly grabbed off the ground. I immediately stopped laughing and looked up to see the Strike had the back of my shirt in his mouth. He stopped and hovered over the pond. I loved down at the water and soon realized what he had in mind. I looked back up at him and quickly shook my head.

He nodded his head, lips rising in a deranged looking grin. I loved Volt, but he was in no way cute or adorable.

Then he dropped me.

I screamed and hit the cold water. When I swam up to the surface Hiccup, Toothless, and Strike were all on the shore laughing.

"Ha-ha. Very funny."

I growled and swam back to shore. When I got back to land I walked over to Strike and squirted water at him. He shook the liquid off and started laughing again. I sat down and pouted the rest of the time.

Mean dragon.

By the time Hiccup and I returned to Berk, I was dry enough that no one noticed or said anything. The students gathered at the gate of a dragon's cage. One we had not yet faced.

"Meet the Terrible Terror."

He pulled down the lever to release the dragon, but nothing came. At least we thought, until we all looked down and saw a much smaller door. When we looked further down we saw a tiny dragon, about the size of a chicken.

Tuffnut laughed at it. Well, actually we all did. "Ha! It's like the size of my-"

Then the little beast lunged at him and attacked his face. We all yelled out in alarm and scattered, leaving Tuffnut to the dragon.

"AAH! OH, GET IT OFF!"

It was trying to rip off Tuffnut's nose when Hiccup used his shield to create a spot of light and directed the little guy off of the idiot.

Tuffnut rolled around on the ground yelling. "Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"

We all watched as Hiccup got the dragon back into its cage.

Tuffnut got up, rubbing his sore nose. "Wow. He's better than you ever were."

I smirked knowingly and watched with my arms crossed over my chest. Snotlout nudged me with his elbow from beside me in the back.

"Tell me your secret."

I shrugged. "Okay"

He looked at me in shock. "Really?"

"Yeah… just not now." My smirk grew when I saw his face and I walked over to Hiccup before Snotlout could saw anything else.

Hiccup had just gotten the Terrible Terror, rightfully named, back into its cage and pinned the door shut with his foot. I clasped my hand on his shoulder.

"Another good job. Let's go get lunch."

We shared a look then walked past the others. We went up to the house so as not cause suspicion and actually had lunch because I was starving then left through the back door. Hiccup had gathered soon stuff from his room while ate so it slowed us down a bit. We came around the corner and saw Astrid training in. I ran past into the bushes, but the supplies weighed Hiccup down and she spun around just as he was going. They stared at each other for a bit then he continued across and we ran the rest of the way.

I grabbed Hiccup's stuff and flew it up to a high ledge on Strike, Hiccup following on Toothless much slower and less graceful. Hiccup tied them to a tree stump to practice flying without having to worry about falling and dying. I watched safely from the air on Strike. It was successful until the rope snapped and the pair went flying back into the trees. Hiccup also learned that attaching himself to the saddle was not the best idea.

We had no way to get it off so we had to take Toothless with us to get them unattached. Strike wanted to come, but one dragon was dangerous enough to bring so I left him in the forest. We carefully snuck into the forge and Hiccup got to work getting them unattached while I kept watch outside.

That's when Astrid showed up. She stomped over to me, looking very agitated.

"Oh! Hi, Astrid!" I raised my voice so Hiccup could hear.

"Hi, Svala. Where's Hiccup?" She stared at me suspiciously.

"Um, he's not here. I left something in the workshop and came back to get it. _I better hurry up_!"

She crossed her arms over her chest, obviously not believing me. "You two are always together."

Are not… or are we? I need more friends.

"I normally don't care what people do, but you guys are acting weird… well, weirder."

I gave her a look and crossed my arms. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Well, he's not here."

The sound of something breaking came from inside the forge. Stupid dragon.

My eyes widened as her's narrowed and Astrid shoved me out of the way, throwing open the window. Nothing was there. She stared inside disbelievingly and I came up behind her smirking.

"See. I told you he's not here."

She glared at me and growled, stomping away. I watched her until she was out of sight then looked around for Hiccup just in time to see him take off on Toothless. I made sure no one was around then headed back to the house, knowing Hiccup would be back soon.

He came back less than an hour later, this time without the dragon attached to him. He told me Toothless and Strike were safe in the cove and he had said goodnight to him for me. We agreed to go to sleep early so we could get up early and ride our dragons all day with no Dragon Training tomorrow.

We did as we said and grabbed some bread for a quick breakfast as we went out to see our dragons. We quickly saddled up and flew out to the ocean. It was time to put what Hiccup and Toothless had learned to the test. Hiccup studied his set of tail positions on the paper in front of him while the dragons glided in midair over the water.

I followed him nearby as they flew incase anything went wrong. It was going great other than when Hiccup made Toothless crash against the rocks and he had to slap Hiccup with his ear plates. They suddenly shot straight up into the air and Strike bolted up after them, but he wasn't as quite fast as Toothless.

I heard Hiccup yell then his cheat sheet went flying past us. I looked up as Hiccup and Toothless came flying past us, only Hiccup was not _on_ Toothless.

"Go, Strike!"

We dove after them, but couldn't get close enough without hitting Toothless and sending all of us plummeting to our deaths. Hiccup grabbed onto Toothless and got back into the saddle as we got closer to the ground. Hiccup shifted the tail fin and they pulled up just in time but then went flying down the slope. Toothless threw out his wings to try and stop, but their momentum was too much and they kept going. I flew behind them, but there was nothing I could do short of knocking them to the ground. They were approaching the rocks fast. Hiccup pulled out the cheat sheet he had got ahold of at some point and tried to read it, but the wind was making it impossible.

Hiccup finally gave up and let the paper go. Luckily, Strike didn't need me to fly because the paper hit me square in the face. When I ripped the paper off and threw it away Strike was flying through the rocks behind Toothless and Hiccup. They were doing amazing as they weaved through the rocked effortlessly.

When we cleared the rocks I pumped my fist up into the air. "Woo! Way to go Hiccup!"

Hiccup threw his arms into the air. "Yeah!"

Toothless shot a plasma blast in excitement. Hiccup arms dropped. "C'mon." It exploded and they flew right into the fire.

My eyes widened when I saw the flames and Strike pulled up quickly, flying over it. Strike lowered to fly beside Toothless and I looked over at Hiccup and bust out laughing so hard I almost cried.

"That bad, huh?"

I quieted down to giggles and shook my head. "No, no. It' fi-" I l exploded into laughter again. "Yeah, no. It's pretty bad."

Hiccup hair was frozen in a swept back motion and he was slightly charred.

The dragons flew us to a nearby island and we landed on a rocky beach. Toothless and Strike settled down on the ground, Hiccup and I leaning against them. Hiccup and I gave them the fish we had brought, Toothless of course regurgitating half of one for Hiccup which he politely refused.

A pack of Terrible Terrors flew over, I guess having smelled the fish. Toothless and Strike both started growling at the little dragons, pulling their food closer protectively.

Toothless got into a little tug-of-war with one, but easily pulled it away from the little dragon and laughed at him. The little guys had guts. He opened his mouth and prepared to fire at Toothless, who shot a little burst down its throat. The Terrible Terror wobbled away from him.

"Not so fireproof on the inside are you? Here you go." Hiccup tossed him a fish.

Another one approached Strike who snarled and got ready to shot his white fire at it. I placed a hand on his head to quiet him down and grabbed one of his fish. I held it out to small dragon. He edge closer to me then grabbed it and swallowed it whole. He looked up at me then came closer and crawled into my lap, curling up there much to Strike's chagrin.

I looked over as Hiccup pet the one curled up at him side. My expression was sad. "We were wrong about them, weren't we?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, everyone was."

We stayed there until it got dark and then flew back to the cove, leaving Toothless and Strike in its protection.

We went to Hiccup's workplace in the forge and Hiccup played with a pencil while I lounged on the cot. We heard a noise outside and then Hiccup dad literally squeezed through the doorway and we both jumped to our feet.

"Dad! You're back." Hiccup pushed the drawings he made about the dragons behind them.

I quickly gathered them all up and shoved them in a drawer.

"Um, Gobber's not here so…"

"I know. I came looking for you."

"You did."

"You've been keeping secrets."

Oh, crap! He knows! How does he know?!

I looked at Hiccup with wide eyes from behind Stoick. He looked at then back at his dad.

"I-I have?"

"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?"

"I-I don't know what you're..."

"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it."

"Oh?"

"So... let's talk... about that dragon."

"Oh, gods... Dad, I'm so sorry, I-I was going to tell you, I just didn't know how to..."

Stoick suddenly burst out laughing.

Not the reaction I was expecting when Stoick found out that his son had a pet dragon.

Hiccup looked at me with a questioning look. I shrugged.

"You're... you're not upset?"

"What?! I was hoping for this!"

Okay, we're definitely not talking about Toothless.

"Uh, you are?"

"Believe me it only gets better! Just wait until you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time! And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear! What a feeling! You really had me going there, son! All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen. Odin. It was rough. I almost gave up on you. And all the while you were holding out on me. Oh, Thor Almighty! Ah! With you doing so well in the ring we finally have something to talk about."

Everything was quiet while Stoick stared at Hiccup, Hiccup stared at me, and I stared between Hiccup and the door. Running out the door sounded like a really good idea at the moment.

"Oh. Here, I brought out something. To keep you safe. In the ring."

Stoick pulled something out of his satchel. A Viking helmet.

"Wow, thanks." Hiccup stared at it in wonder.

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it. It's have of her breast plate."

Stoick tapped to his own helmet.

"Matching set. Keeps her close you know. Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up you end of the deal."

Stoick then turned to me.

Oh, boy.

"I'm proud of you too, Svala. Gobber told me you've been doing well. You're becoming a real Viking."

I smiled awkwardly. "Thanks."

"He also told me you're getting quite close to that Jorgensen boy. Snotlout."

Oh, no. I don't like where this conversation is going.

"He'll be a big, strong Viking. A good husband for you."

My jaw hit the floor. What? Was I really having this conversation with Hiccup's father? This is so wrong in so many ways.

Hiccup pretended to yawn. "We should really get to bed."

I nodded rapidly. "Yeah, we have a big day of Dragon Training tomorrow."

"Oh, yes. Good. Okay. Good talk." Stoick backed out of the room, leaving us alone.

I looked at Hiccup, my jaw still on the floor then fell backwards onto the cot.

"I should have run when I had the chance."

"Yes, you should have. That was awful."

"Your conversation or mine?"

"Both."

I nodded my agreement and we curled up on the cots, deciding to just sleep in the forge tonight.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I woke up as soon as I heard Hiccup moving around throughout the forge and saw him hiding the drawings of Toothless and Strike in case Gobber came in. I yawn, stretching out my arms as I got up. I grab a roll of bread out of my satchel handing another over to Hiccup as he finished up.

I studied the calm expression on his face. "You know today's the last day of Dragon Training right?"

"Yep."

"Everyone's going to be expecting you to win."

"Yep."

"The winner kills the Monstrous Nightmare."

"Yep."

I couldn't take it anymore and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him. "Then why are you so calm!"

Hiccup placed his own hands on my shoulders to calm me down. "I'm not the only one that people think will win. I'll just let Astrid win."

I released him from my vise grip. "Oh… okay then. Let's go."

He rolled his eyes at me. We walked to the arena, getting there at about the same time as everyone else. Small wooden walls had been scattered throughout the arena.

I met Snotlout's eye and he winked at me. I ducked my head to hide my blush and turned away from him to act like I was talking to Hiccup.

Hiccup glanced over my shoulder. "Why is Snotlout glaring at me?"

"What?" I looked back to confirm and saw the Snotlout indeed glaring at Hiccup like he was hoping Hiccup would spontaneously combust.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

Something went off in Hiccup's head and he laughed. He put his hand over his mouth to keep quiet. "He's mad that you're talking to me."

I looked at him in surprise then rolled my eyes, sighing. "Oh, brother. I talk to you every day and he's never cared before. Why now?"

Before Hiccup could answer Gobber walked into the ring and stood before the students.

"Today is the last day of Dragon Training. The two students in the running for the honor of killing their first dragon are Astrid and Hiccup."

Gobber walked over the cage of the Gronckle and pulled down the lever. "May the best Viking win."

Everyone ran to a wall as the Gronckle burst from its cage. It flew around searching for the people it knew were here, but everyone stayed well hidden. I rolled over to another board as the Gronckle flew around the one I had been at.

"What are chances we'd meet here?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. "For the love of Thor. Snotlout, don't do that again." We both spoke in whispers so the dragon wouldn't hear us.

"I want to talk to you."

"Oh, really? Is it about Hiccup and mine's secret?"

"Yes."

I sighed and glanced around the wood at the Gronckle. "I told you I'm not-"

"Are you and Hiccup dating?"

I spun around to face him, my expression on of pure and utter shock. "WHAT?!"

I heard the Gronckle growl and fly over toward us. Snotlout rolled over to another board and I followed after him.

"Are you insane?!" I whisper-yelled at him.

"Well, you two are always together and every time I talk to you, you run of with him in the middle of the conversation."

I looked up at the sky in exasperation then stared straight into Snotlout's eyes, planting my hands on his shoulders.

I spoke slowly and clearly. "Listen carefully. Hiccup and I are not dating. We have never dated. He is my best friend. I will never date him. Do you understand?"

Snotlout nodded. "Okay, so you wouldn't mind if I did this?"

Before I could ask, Snotlout grabbed my upper arms and pulled me forward, planting his lips on mine. My eyes widened, but I didn't have a chance to respond because almost immediately after, cheers rose up from the people surrounding the arena.

Snotlout pulled away and we looked to see the Gronckle lying at Hiccup's feet and Astrid throwing a hissy fit.

So much for letting Astrid win.

Hiccup tried to leave. "I'm kind of late for…"

Astrid spun him around and pointed her axe at his throat. "_What_? Late for _what_ exactly?"

I hopped over the board and came to Hiccup's rescue, pushing axe away from him. "Lunch. He's late for lunch."

I raised an eyebrow when Astrid turned her murderous gaze to me and growled.

"Okay, quiet down. The elder had decided." Stoick hushed the crowd and approached the ring with the elder.

Gobber picked me up with his hooked and placed me down out of the way then stood behind Hiccup and Astrid. Gobber placed his hand over Astrid's head, but the elder shook her head. He pointed down to Hiccup and she nodded.

Everyone broke out into cheers, but Astrid genuinely looked like she was going to kill Hiccup.

This was so not how I pictured today going.

"You did it Hiccup! You get the kill the dragon!"

Here we go.

The other students, even Snotlout, picked up Hiccup as they cheered and sat him on Fishlegs' shoulder. I stood back and watched with unease until Snotlout came over and grabbed my hand, dragging me with them.

We went back and celebrated in The Great Hall for a few hours until Hiccup was able to get away from everyone and we stood of in a secluded part of The Great Hall by the kitchen.

"We need to get out of here."

"Well, how do you suggest doing that without being spotted by you adoring fans?"

Hiccup held his fist up to his mouth, thinking. "We could go out through the kitchen."

I nodded my approval. "Let's do it."

We waited until absolutely no one was looking and then Hiccup snuck through the kitchen first. I went to followed him, but was stopped when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to them.

I looked up into pale green eyes.

"You're running off with him again."

I pursed my lips, shifting my eyes from his unrelenting gaze.

"I told you. He's my best friend and we have something we need to do. What you want me to do?"

"Stay."

I stared at him, unsure of how to answer. "What?"

Snotlout pulled me closer so I was pressed against his chest. "Don't go with him. Stay here with me."

I sighed, leaning my head on his chest as I thought. I had never felt so conflicted in my life… but I had responsibilities. Responsibilities to Hiccup, who was there for me when no one else was, and responsibilities to Strike, who trusted me when he had no reason to.

"I'm sorry." I quickly reached up and placed a kiss on his lip. When I felt his grip on me slacken in surprise, I pulled away from him and ran out the doors.

Hiccup was waiting for me outside. "Are you okay? What took you so long?"

I didn't stop and power walked past him. "I don't want to talk about it."

Hiccup stared at me in confusion as I went by, but then ran to catch up with me. First, we went up to the house and packed up some of our things into backpacks. I came down the stairs where Hiccup was waiting with his backpack. We had agreed we needed to leave Berk for Toothless and Strike's safety.

"Was it Snotlout?"

"What?" My saddened face looked at him in surprise.

"I looked into the kitchen and saw Snotlout in there looking for you."

My shoulders slumped. "Yeah."

Hiccup walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to come."

"Yes, I do. I want to." I smiled at him weakly.

Hiccup didn't look completely convinced, but he let it go and we grabbed our supplies, leaving through the back door.

We hurried to the cove, moving swiftly. We jumped down into the bowl and looked around for our dragons.

Hiccup called for them. "Leaving! We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like the four of us are taking a little vacation."

I dropped my stuff down beside near the water. "Forever."

I rummaged through my pack until I heard Hiccup gasped. When I looked up, Astrid was sitting on a boulder above him, sharpening her axe.

"Oh, uh... What are you doing here?"

"I want to know what's going on."

She jumped down and approached Hiccup, who backed away from her. "No one just gets as good as you do. _Especially_ you. Start talking."

I stood up and moved closer to them, watching Astrid warily in case she tried something.

Hiccup stumbled over his words, unable to form a complete sentence.

"Are you training with someone?"

"Um, uh. Training?"

"It better not involve this." Astrid pulled at Hiccup's leather harness.

"I know this looks really bad but see this is…"

A noise came from over in the back and Astrid went after it, ignoring Hiccup. Hiccup tried to deter her, but to no avail.

I step out into her path and crossed my arms, eyes narrowed. "It's none of your business how we train so get lost."

She got up my face and we went head to head. "I'm going to find what you two are up to if it's the last thing I do."

"If you keep pushing this, it will be." We glared at each other until a growl vibrated from behind me.

Astrid's eyes widened and her gaze rose as a shadow passed over me.

Hiccup came up behind her and she tackled him. "Get down! Svala move!"

I spun around to see Strike standing there on his hind legs. His massive wings were spread out and lightning pulsed around him. He roared ferociously, probably at Astrid.

I yelped as Astrid grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Toothless roared and charged over from another part of the cove.

Astrid rolled over into a stand and held up her axe, yelling at us. "Run! Run!"

Toothless leapt over a boulder and lunged at Astrid, but Hiccup pushed her out of way. Toothless landed and roared, trying to go after her but Hiccup stood between them trying to calm him down.

Strike roared and tried to go after her too, but I held him back. "Easy, Strike. Calm down."

Once I had him under control I watched as Toothless lowered from a rear and calmed down, pushing into Hiccup's side.

Hiccup held up his hands and tried to calm Astrid down. "It's okay, you just scared them."

"_I_ scared _them?!_" Astrid paused as Toothless growled menacingly and Strike hissed. "_Who_... are _them?_"

"Uh, Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." Hiccup introduced them as Toothless glared at her.

I gestured to Strike. "Strike."

Astrid looked between us like we were crazy then turned and ran off to, I assume, tell the village we had pet dragons.

"Da, da, da, we're dead!"

Toothless shrugged and walked away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think _you're_ going?" Hiccup ran after him and jumped on Toothless. "We are going after her."

They flew off after Astrid much to Toothless' annoyance. After they were gone, I turned and pointed my finger at Strike. "You weren't exactly an innocent bystander."

He made a little grumbling noise. I groaned and let myself fall back onto the grass.

Could this day get any worse?

Yes it could.

Strike's head jerked over to look at the rocks and a loud, angry hiss rising out of his throat. I propped myself up onto my elbows and looked between him and the rocks.

"What's wrong Strike?"

Strike roared and took off, flying over to the outcrop. He roared again and I heard someone scream as he lowered and pick up them up with his hind feet. When Strike flew out from behind the rocks he had Snotlout by the shoulders.

"Snotlout!" I quickly scrambled my feet as Strike flew back over with him.

Snotlout was yelling and thrashing around in his grip. "Put me down you stupid overgrown lizard!"

Strike dropped him in a heap at my feet and landed behind me, growling at Snotlout.

"What are you doing here?!" I yelled at Snotlout as he climbed to his feet.

He pointed to dragon, looking a little more than angry. "_This_ is what you've been doing?! Playing with dragons?! We're supposed to kill dragons, not be their friends!"

I slapped his hand away. "I don't want to kill dragons! And neither does Hiccup!" My voice softened to a plea. "They're not what we thought they were. They're not evil. They can be trained. Strike and Toothless proved that. Just let me show."

"Why should I?! I heard _everything_. You were going to run away with Hiccup on your dragons and leave me here without a second thought."

"I didn't have a choice-"

"_Hiccup_ didn't have a choice! You did! You could have chosen me, but you didn't!"

"You're wrong Snotlout! I owe everything to Hiccup! He's always been there, always accepted me! You haven't! There was a time when you felt the same way about me as the rest of the tribe! I don't want to leave you, believe me, but right now I don't have much a choice. When Hiccup doesn't kill that dragon tomorrow they're going to figure out what is going on and they'll know I was in on it!"

Snotlout calmed down quite a bit, but still looked pretty upset. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I groaned. "Really Snotlout? Of all people, you'd be that last to want to make friends with the dragon."

Snotlout scowled, but he knew it was true.

Strike came up beside me and I mounted him. Snotlout stared in confusion when I held out my hand to him. "Let me show you what they can be… please."

Snotlout looked between me, my hand, and Strike then sighed. He placed his hand in mine and I pulled him up onto Strike.

"Ow!"

"Strike! Don't do that!"

I scolded Strike after he mildly electrocuted Snotlout. Strike rumbled in response then shot off into the air. Snotlout held onto me tight as Strike headed higher and higher into the sky before starting to level out.

That's when I noticed the storm cloud gathering.

The rest of the sky behind us was clear while lightening flashed in the clouds, letting me know this was Strike's doing.

"Ah! Where is he going?!"

"Strike, what are you doing?! That's not a good idea! We need him to not die!"

Despite my protest Strike flew into the flashing cloud, slowing down to a gild. Lightening lit up all around us but never hit us.

Snotlout looked around in amazement. "Wow. This is the coolest thing I have seen."

I smiled when I saw his face and patted Strike. "Skrills are known to ride lightning bolts like air torpedoes to reach supersonic speeds. He's the reason we haven't been struck by lightning."

Snotlout smiled down at me, his grip around my waist tightening. "I admit this is pretty cool…. How fast can he go?"

A grin streaked over my face. I reached down and placed my hand on Strike. "What do you say boy? Wanna so him how fast a Skrill can go."

Strike roared. I leaned down and grabbed onto his saddle. "Hold on tight."

Snotlout pressed against me and then we were off. Strike shoot through the dark clouds as lightning flashed around us. The wind whistled as we tore through it. We raced like this for what felt like hours. I probably was, because when we finally broke through the clouds the sky was black and lite up with stars. Strike slowed back down and glided through the air over the forest.

I turned to look at Snotlout. "Well, what you think."

Snotlout smirked. "I think… I want my own dragon. This is by far the coolest thing I've even done."

I grinned as I turned to sit sideways and hugged him. "I told you. The dragons are amazing and we _can_ live together."

Snotlout hugged me back tightly, his chin resting on my head. "Are you still going to leave."

I sighed and leaned into him. "I don't want to, but at this point I don't know if there's another choice."

Snotlout opened his mouth to say something when Strike suddenly veered sharply to left and fly off into some fog. I wobbled in my unsteady position, but Snotlout held onto me.

"Where is he going?"

I swung my leg back over to sit properly just as a Deadly Nadder appeared out of the mist; calling to Strike as is flew beside us.

Strike called back, Snotlout and I ducking down so it didn't see us. Another Deadly Nadder appeared on our other side. The mist thinned out a bit and we saw that we were in the middle of a hoard of dragons.

Each of them holding some kind of food.

"Oh, this can't be good."

We swopped down and weaved between columns of rock. I saw a giant volcano just before we flew inside with the rest of the dragons. We emerged into a cavern that dropped into a pit of, I assumed, lava. The dragons began dropping the food into the lava. I looked around at all the dragons and suddenly saw Hiccup and Toothless with Astrid on behind them. I swerved Strike over to fly beside them.

"Fancy meeting you here." I grinned and waved at them.

Hiccup looked around. "Where is here?"

I shrugged as Strike and Toothless flew around to a high up platform. The dragons landed, hiding behind a pillar of rock.

"Oh, it's satisfying to know all of our food has been dumped down a hole."

"They're not eating any of it."

I glanced over at them then back down at the hole. "That doesn't make any sense."

A Gronckle flew over the hole and regurgitated a fish. It started to fly away when titan sized dragon lunged up from the chasm and ate the smaller dragon whole. All four of us stared wide-eyed in disbelief. All of the other dragons cowered from the massive beast.

"What. Is. That."

It started to retreat back into the pit, but suddenly paused at came back up, growling. We saw it sniffing and knew it had found out we were here.

Hiccup leaned down to Toothless "Alright bud, we got to get out of here."

I grabbed onto the saddle and leaned forward "Take us home, Strike."

The dragons shot off out of the volcano just as the monstrous dragon lunged up and snapped at where we had been moments ago. It set off a chain reaction and all the dragons flew away, swirling up to the top of the volcano. The dragon lunged at us again but was to slow and we burst out of the volcano, heading straight toward Berk

Everyone was silent until we got back to the cove and landed.

"It totally makes sense. It's like a giant bee hive. They're the workers and that's their queen. It controls them." Astrid jumped off Toothless, excited.

"Is that why they've been raiding us?" Snotlout and I climbed off of Strike.

"I think so. Let's find Hiccup's dad." Astrid turned and started walking back to the village, but Hiccup stopped her.

"No, no! No, not yet. They'll kill Toothless and Strike. We need to think this through, carefully."

"What's to think? We go in. We kill the dragon. Done." Typical Snotlout.

"Hiccup's right. If we just burst in and tell them they won't listen." I looked between the others.

"We just discovered the Dragon's Nest. The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here. And you two want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragons? Are you serious?"

Hiccup and I stared at each other, a silent conversation going between us. We turned to Astrid and answered simultaneously.

"Yes."

Astrid looked at Snotlout for help, but he just shrugged.

"…Okay. Then what do we do?"

"Just give me until tomorrow. I'll figure something out."

"Okay."

Astrid punched him in arm. "That's for kidnapping me."

As Hiccup rubbed him sore arm, Astrid pulled him closer and kissed him on the cheek. "That's for... everything else."

Embarrassed, Astrid ran off back to the village. I felt Snotlout put his arm around me and looked up at him.

"I'll walk you home."

I smiled as we started walking back to the village, waving goodbye to Hiccup as we left. As said, Snotlout walked me to the house and we said goodnight. Snotlout turned to leave.

"Snotlout, wait!"

When Snotlout turned back around in question I grabbed the collar of his shirt and planted my lips on his in a fiery kiss. Almost as quickly as it began it ended. I pulled away and ducked into the house, shutting the door.

What a day.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When I woke up that morning everything was tense and quiet. Hiccup and I did our regular routine, but no one dared to talk. We walked down toward the arena and met up with Astrid and Snotlout. The four of us walked down to the Killing Arena.

Snotlout and I went over to the stands while Astrid walked down to the entrance with Hiccup. We stood among the other Vikings as Stoick came out onto a stage. Everyone was in an uproar.

"Well I can show my face in public again!"

Stoick motioned for everyone to quiet down when they broke out into cheers and laughter.

"If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from being well… ah, Hiccup to placing first in Dragon Training well I would have tied them to a mast and shipped them off for being gone mad! And you know it."

I elbowed Snotlout in the side when he started laughing.

"But here we are and knows more surprised or more proud than I am. Today my boy becomes a Viking. Today he becomes one of us!"

Everyone crowded around the arena. Snotlout and I shoved our way to the front of the arena. Everyone started cheering when Hiccup walked out with his Viking helmet on his head. Hiccup walked over to the weapons rack, looking like he was about to throw up. When I glanced over at Stoick he was leaning forward in his seat, watching Hiccup intensely. The first thing Hiccup grabbed as a shield, the second a small dagger.

Hiccup turned and stood ready as the cage door containing the Monstrous Nightmare was unlocked. All was quiet for a few seconds and then the dragon surged from its cage with a roar. As was expected, the dragon was lit on fire. I drew in a sharp breath, my hand reaching out to grab Snotlout's tightly.

The Monstrous Night leapt onto the arena walls and ran along them, breathing fire as people ducked out of the way. It crawled along the ceiling and down the other side, but stopped when it smelled Hiccup. The dragon climbed down to the ground and stalked up to him, growling.

Hiccup dropped the shield and dagger. He placed out his hands as the dragon continued to back him up. Hiccup took off his helmet and threw it to the ground.

"I'm not one of them."

Everyone gasped and Stoick called for the fight to stop, but Hiccup refused.

"No. I need you all to see this. They're not what we think they are. We don't half to kill them."

The Monstrous Nightmare was being soothed and Hiccup almost had it calmed down until Stoick brought his hammer down onto the arena wall.

"I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!"

I saw the Monstrous Nightmare's eyes widen at the noise and then snapped at Hiccup. Hiccup ran away and yelled as it blew fire at him. The dragon chased him around the arena, jaws snapping.

"Hiccup !"

I gripped the arena walls and tried to climb through, but Snotlout pulled me back.

"No! It's too dangerous!"

Astrid ran into the arena to try and help Hiccup. She immediately went to the weapons rack and threw a hammer at the dragon, knocking him in the face. This only pissed him off and he turned his attention to Astrid.

Stoick threw the arena door open and yelled for them. Hiccup and Astrid both ran for the exit, but only Astrid made it. The Monstrous Nightmare shot lava at the door after Astrid ran through and Hiccup was forced to veer off. The dragon caught up to him and knocked Hiccup down, pinning him under his claws.

That's when everyone heard the sound and seconds later, a plasma shot a hole through the arena wall. Toothless. I looked around and as I suspected, Strike flew up right behind him. I pulled away from Snotlout and jumped onto Strike before he could even land.

"C'mon boy. Let's go help them."

Toothless and the Monstrous Nightmare were battling it out so when we got there I couldn't get a clear shot. When the Monstrous Nightmare had Toothless pinned I saw my chance and Strike shot a stream of white fire at it. The Monstrous Nightmare jumped off of him and roared at Toothless and Strike. They stood their ground, roaring back fierily. The Monstrous Nightmare tried to get to Hiccup, but Toothless held him at bay. After a final roar, the Monstrous Nightmare backed off and ran back to its cage.

Hiccup ran over and tried to push Toothless away. "Alright Toothless, go, get out of here."

I swung off of Strike. "You did good, now go!"

As I said Strike opened his wings and shot off as the Vikings poured into the ring. Stoick grabbed an axe and charged toward Toothless. Toothless' eyes locked onto the Stoick and ran at him. I could hear Hiccup yelling, but was too distracted by the other Vikings to listen. Toothless knocked people out of his way and then tackled Stoick, pushing him to the ground. Toothless made that shrill noise as he got ready to shot a blast at Stoick.

"No! NO!"

Hiccup screamed at Toothless, who paused in his attack and looked at Hiccup apologetically. During this moment of distraction the other Vikings grabbed Toothless and threw him to the ground, piling on top of him. They pinned Toothless to the ground. Hiccup ran toward him but Astrid and I held him back. It was no use, we lost.

"Put it with the others."

Stoick turned to us and stomped over, his expression more than angry. Without saying a word he grabbed us by the back of our shirts and dragged us over to the large room behind the stage, roughly throwing us inside. Enormous statues of past heroes lined the walls, frowning down at us.

"I should have known. I should have seen the signs."

Hiccup and I shared a look as Hiccup father walked past us talking to himself.

"Dad."

Hiccup approached him with me following from behind.

"We had a deal!"

"I know we did, but that was before I… oh! It's all so messed up."

I came up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Hiccup.

"We should have told you sooner."

Stoick turned to us, but luckily for me his attention was on his son.

"So everything in the ring. A trick! A lie!"

He turned his back to us once again.

"I screwed up. I-I-I should have told you before now. I… just…you… take this out on me. Be mad at me. But please, just don't hurt Toothless.

Stoick tensed up and spun on him.

"The dragon?! That's what you're worried about?! Not the people you almost killed?!"

"He was just protecting me! He-He's not dangerous!"

"They killed hundreds of us!"

"And we've killed thousands of them. The defend themselves. That's all!"

It was my turn to stand up to him. "They did what any one of us would have done!"

"They raid us because they have to! If they don't bring enough food back they'll be eaten themselves. There's something else on their island, Dad. It's dragon like-"

"Their island?!"

You had to open your mouth Hiccup.

"So you've been to the nest?"

"Did I say nest?"

"How did you find it?"

"No. I-I didn't. Toothless and Strike did. Only a dragon can find the island."

I saw lights go on in Stoick's head and he backed off of Hiccup.

Hiccup saw it too. "Oh, no, no, no. Oh, Dad, no! Please, no! It's not what you think. You don't know what you're up against! It's like nothing you've ever seen."

I stood in his way and tried to plead with him. "It's too big! It'll slaughter everyone!"

Stoick roughly shoved us out of the way and started back to the door.

"Dad, please! I promise you, you can't win this one. Dad. No! For once in your live would you please just listen to me!"

Hiccup grabbed onto his father, but was pushed to the ground. I really had no idea what to say at this point.

"You've thrown your lot in with them."

Stoick turned his furious gaze to me. "The same to you, Svala. Looks like I was wrong about you. You'll never be anything more than a deceitful pirate."

I stood there shell-shocked as he looked back to Hiccup.

You're not a Viking. You're not my son."

With that, Hiccup's father was gone.

I dazedly dragged my feet over to where Hiccup was on the ground, staring blankly at the door, and fell on my butt beside him. I leaned against him, offering what little comfort I had. We stayed like for a few minutes when we heard lots of noise coming from outside. Like bugs to a light, we got up and walked toward the sound almost unconsciously moving. Hiccup and I end up on the docks and looked down upon a dreadful scene.

War ships were being loaded with catapults not even large enough for the Queen dragon to use as toothpicks. The last thing loaded was Toothless, who was muzzled and completely pinned down. The war ships sent off, but Hiccup and I just stood there and numbly watched until they were far out of sight.

We didn't notice Astrid walking up until she was right behind us. I glanced back at her, but Hiccup couldn't find the courage to. Astrid walked up to stand on Hiccup's other side and looked out across the ocean.

"It's a mess. You must feel horrible. You've lost everything. Your father, your tribe, one of your best friends... Svala, you-"

I cut her off, glaring bitterly into the horizon. "Can't lose what I never had."

"Thank you… for summing that up. Why couldn't I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods? Would've been better for everyone."

"Yep. The rest of us probably would have done it, even Svala. So why didn't you?"

Astrid stared at him in curiosity.

"Why didn't you?"

"I don't know. I couldn't."

"That's not an answer."

"Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?!"

"Because I want to remember what you say right now."

"Oh, for the love of… I was coward. I was weak. I wouldn't kill a dragon."

"You said wouldn't that time."

"Oh, whatever! I wouldn't! Three hundred years and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon."

"First to ride one though. So…?"

I opened to mouth to point out I was the second, but quickly shut it because that would have been a lie. I wasn't a Viking and at this point, probably never would be.

"I would've kill his, because he looked as frightened at I was. I looked at him and I saw myself."

"I bet he's really frightened now. What are you going to do about it."

"Uh… probably something stupid."

"Good, but you've already done that."

I walked over and threw my arm around Hiccup's neck, jerking my thumb toward myself. "Plus. That's my job."

"Then something crazy."

Hiccup grabbed my wrist and we ran off to go do… something.

We ended up grabbing some supplies from the black smith stop and took them back toward the arena. Hiccup looked up at the locked cage of the Monstrous Nightmare.

"I your planning on getting eaten I'd definitely go with the Gronckle."

Hiccup and I turned around to see all of the other teenagers standing there. We shared a confused look then turned back to the group.

"You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon… it's me." Tuffnut invaded Hiccup personal space until Ruffnut shoved her brother back.

"You're crazy! I like that." Ruffnut was roughly pulled away by Astrid.

I giggled into my hand until Tuffnut went and invaded _my_ personal space. "You know. I always thought you were really hot."

I leaned back and gave him a weird look. Snotlout suddenly came up and pulled Tuffnut away from me, punching him in the face. I laughed and jumped into his arms, welcoming the warm hug I got.

"So… what is the plan?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched Hiccup eagerly. He hadn't even told me the plan.

"Okay. We can't beat this thing by ourselves, but I think we could so it with dragons so everyone is going to need their own."

A light went off in my head and I suddenly remembered Strike, who I had sent away. "Oh, yeah!" I putted my fingers up to my lips and whistled sharply.

All was silent for a few seconds and then a roar echoed throughout the village. I saw a purple flash in the sky as Strike flew overhead then turned and dove through the hole Toothless had made. Strike landed on the other side of the arena and growled at everyone, his wings flared. I broke out of Snotlout's grip and ran to Strike hugging him around his broad head. "You're okay!"

"Dude, you just lost you girlfriend to a dragon...OW!"

I heard Tuffnut taunting Snotlout and then a yell of pain so I could only assume that Snotlout had injured him in some way.

"Svala, can you get the door?"

I let go of Strike and went over to the Monstrous Nightmare's cage, pulling the lever to release it. The doors swung open and Hiccup entered the dark room. When he backed out into the light, he had his hand out with the dragon's snout under it and following him. Everyone watched in awe as he coaxed the giant beast out.

Hiccup back over to Snotlout, who was looking a bit scared, and grabbed him arm. Hiccup actually had to coax Snotlout more than the dragon, but eventually replaced Snotlout's hand with his. Snotlout started grinned and start laughing until Hiccup walked away.

"Where you goin'?!"

Hiccup reached into the box where the stuff we grabbed was and pulled out a rope. "You're going to need something to help you hold on."

While they were distracted, I went around and released all the dragons. When they looked, all the dragons were standing there. I grabbed Fishlegs and directed him to the Gronckle while Hiccup introduced Astrid to the Deadly Nadder and then we each worked with a twin and the Hideous Zippleback. After everyone was acquainted with their dragons we worked on riding them. Everyone was a bit nervous, but overall it went smoothly and within an hour we took to the skies. I took the lead on Strike, since he was the fastest and it was easier for everyone to just follow me.

"Svala!"

I slowed Strike down so that Hiccup and Astrid could catch up on the Deadly Nadder. "What?"

"When we get to the island do you think Strike could gather a storm? A big one?"

I nodded. "Yeah, just make sure you guys watch my back. Strike has to concentrate to build a storm, especially a big storm, so he won't be able to defend himself."

Snotlout flew up on my other side, seated on his Monstrous Nightmare with a cocky grin. "Don't worry, babe. I'll protect you."

Before I could say anything, we broke through the fog and entered hell. The Queen dragon torn down half the volcano, all the ships were on fire, and everyone was running from the titan. Well, almost everyone.

"Is that Gobber and your father?" I called to Hiccup when I saw the dragon looking between two people.

I leaned down over the saddle. "C'mon Strike. Let's show them what you're made of."

Strike closed his wings and dove toward the Queen, leaving the slower dragons behind. He opened his mouth and shot a blast of hot, white fire at the dragon. The dragon roared and Strike opened his wings, the wind drawing him back to the other dragons. We flew as a group through the smoke and around its head toward the villagers.

As Hiccup was yelling orders to everyone I flew further into the air and higher above the battle. Strike hovered there in midair and storm clouds began to gather and condense. I watch from above, irritated that I wasn't down there fighting. Everything was going well for a bit and then Snotlout was thrown off his dragon and onto the Queen. Fishlegs' Gronckle began spinning and crashed into the ground though I could no reason why the dragons got all weird.

I looked back up and the sky and saw the biggest storm cloud I had even seen, lightening flashing through angrily. I laughed triumphantly and patted Strike. "Good job, Strike! Just keep at it!"

When looked back down Hiccup was on Toothless. I cheered from my lonely place in the clouds and watched the show. Hiccup and Toothless drove toward the dragon and shot it with a high powered plasma blast, knocking the behemoth off its feet.

It was furious.

It stretched enormous wings and flew up behind Toothless, its size making up for its lack of strength. They flew around the island a bit before Hiccup looked up and saw the dark sky Strike had summoned. Strike and I moved out of the way and Toothless flew past us, Hiccup yelling to me on the way by.

"It's perfect, Svala!"

Hiccup shot past us with the Queen dragon close behind. Strike bolted out of the way and we watched as the three of these disappeared into the stormy abyss. I flew Strike back toward the ground and landed with all the others. I jumped off of Strike and tried to see them, but it was no use the clouds were too thick and dark. Everyone came running over to where I was.

Snotlout was the first to reach me and pulled me into his arms.

The next was Astrid, who looked terrified. "What's he doing?!"

I shook my head, glancing back up at the sky for a moment. "I don't know. He never told me."

Everyone paused and looked to the sky when they heard the angry roars of the Queen dragon. All we could do was wait. I wanted to go up there and help, but when I looked at Strike he was exhausted from gathering that storm. There was no way he could fight.

That's when they came crashing down. Toothless was diving toward the ground and I could faintly see that his makeshift tail fin was on fire. The Queen dragon and going headfirst behind them and it looked like the inside of her mouth was on fire. Toothless opened his wings a swept past the beast as it crashed into the ground, causing a massive explosion. The earth shook under our feet.

A shockwave from the explosion made everyone crouch to the ground and cover their heads. Snotlout placed himself between me and shockwave, holding me protectively. When it was over and everyone raised their heads, the entire area was thick with ash. You could barely see three feet in front of you.

Stoick, Astrid, and I all started looking for Hiccup, calling out his name. We all noticed Stoick over by something as the ash slowly cleared away and whenI got closer I saw that it was Toothless.

"Hiccup!"

I started to run over there, but quickly drew to stop when I neared them. Toothless with a banged up and Hiccup was nowhere to be seen. I covered my mouth with my hands and chocked out a sob.

Snotlout was almost immediately there with his arms around me. This caused me to break down crying and I dove into his chest. I couldn't believe it. My best friend was dead.

I pulled my together so that, tears only silently ran down my face. I looked back at Toothless and saw that he was awake. Toothless stared at Stoick for a bit and then parted his black wings. Hiccup was there.

Stoick quickly grabbed Hiccup and checked for vital signs. I held my breath and leaned forward in anticipation.

"He's alive! You brought him back alive."

Everyone, including the dragons, broke out into cheers. I quickly ran over to them and kneeled beside them as Stoick placed his hand on Toothless.

"Thank you for saving my son."

Gobber came up on Stoick's other side and of course had to say something inappropriate. "Well, you know, most of him."

Wait. What?

I Hiccup up and down and found that his foot was missing.

I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

We quickly bandaged his leg and loaded him onto the one boat that could still float.

A random villager stepped forward. "How are we all going to get home with only one boat?"

With Hiccup incapacitated, everyone turned to me for ideas.

I put my finger to lips with my thump under my chin as I thought. Everyone turned to look as a swarm of dragons landed on the island, returning now that the Queen was dead. A grin slowly stretched over my face and I looked back at the villagers. "Hmm."

After a bit of convincing, I got to work training the dragons on the island and introducing them to the people that would ride them home. A couple hours later every villager, aside from the ones that could fit onto the ship, were seated on dragons. The teenagers and I had our dragons tied to ship with rope with two on each side. When the time came to leave, the dragons all took to the sky and we lifted the boat, flying it home.

We got home a lot quicker than it would have taken them to sail and we dropped the ship off a docks while everyone else landed in the village. Our dragons landed on the docks and we dismounted them, sending the dragons to the village.

Hiccup was unloaded from the ship and taken to the house were the wound was cleaned. Gobber and I went down to the black smith shop and forged Hiccup a prosthetic leg and a new tail fine for Toothless, though his different greatly from the typical peg leg.

We took it back up to the house and Gobber hooked it up to Hiccup. I waited outside and during this time I looked around to saw that all the dragons were still in the village, standing on houses and walking around the village. People were feeding and petting them, the children were playing with them, and everyone looked really happy.

Snotlout and the others flew up on their dragons. "Hey, Svala. We're going to practice flying. Want to come?"

I grinned and nodded. "Yeah!"

I whistled sharply for Strike who came flying up soon after. I mounted him and we took off, the six of us flying around the village a bit for a warm up.

"Hey, let's go out to the ocean." Astrid suggested and everyone agreed.

"C'mon, guys get ready! Let's go!" Snotlout took off in the lead.

For some reason, Snotlout thought that he was leader while Hiccup while wasn't around.

"We're going to have to fix that." I leaned down closer to Strike and bolted forward, almost hitting Snotlout as we zipped past.

Someone suddenly yelled. "Hey, look! It's Hiccup!"

Astrid and I both zeroed in on him standing outside the house and landed our dragons, taking off toward. The rest of the ground followed after us, though not as frantically.

Astrid reached him first and landed a punch on his arm. "That's for scaring me."

"Wha-what?! What, is it always gonna be this way? 'Cause-"

Astrid grabbed him by the collar and planted a kiss on his lips.

"I could get used to it."

I laughed as Snotlout came up beside me and whined. "Why does Hiccup get all the action?"

I shrugged and turned him. "I could cut your foot off."

His face paled a bit. "I'm good."

I giggled and rolled my eyes then warped my arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. I pulled away after a few seconds. "Happy?"

He nodded quickly.

Gobber gave Hiccup the new tail fin I had made for him. Toothless pushed over everyone in his way to get to Hiccup. We all went over to where we had left our dragons and mounted up. We flew off and raced through the village. I was finally one of them. I was a Viking.

That is how to train your pirate.


End file.
